Issue # 402
Date:
Wednesday November 17th, 1999 11:09 am
The Wrestling Booking Sheet
SMACKDOWN SPOILER
At the conclusion of today's
issue we present the spoiler for
Thursday's Smackdown, taped
11/16, and direct from
http://www.scoopswrestling.com
As always, if you would
rather be surprised, be sure to skip that
section…
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A BITTERSWEET REMINDER
Written by reader:
Bduff01
Was I the only person that
was reminded of the Owen Hart tragedy during
the Survivor Series. After
Austin got hit, when the King was doing his
little 'shoot' commentary, it
reminded me of his shoot commentary after
Owen's fall.
Did anyone else have a
similar flashback? This disturbed me a lot more
then seeing Dustin come to
the ring suspended on a wire. Any comments?
++++++++++
Steve Appy responds:
With the death rate in
wrestling at such an obscene level it has been
speculated that the WWF wants
to desensitize us to real tragedy. This
way, next time someone dies,
a certain percentage of the audience will
shrug it off and consider it
part of the show. After all, Ross &
Lawler's mannerisms following
The Big Show's death & Austin's car
accident sure looked
realistic to me. Even the ten bell salute isn't
sacred anymore.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DYNAMITE KID LIVE CHAT
Written by reader: Patty
Therre (WCWNWOEdit)
I would like your readers to
know that the Dynamite Kid will be having
a live chat on Wednesday, Nov
17th (today) at 8 p.m. EST. There will be
6 autographed books given
away at the end of the chat.
Tom Billington VERY rarely
does chats and this should be very
revealing. People interested
should go to
http://www.DynamiteKid.com
and click on the link to the
chat. They can begin sending in questions
for Tom at 7:30 p.m. Since
the chat room only holds 1000 people, it is
important that those who want
to participate get there early. The
others will be able to read
the transcript in real time but not submit
questions.
Thanks, Patty Therre
Howl Too (www.howltoo.com)
*** Please visit my website
at www.wrestlingonthefringe.com ***
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
THE IRONY OF THE ROSS REPORT
Written by reader:
CKb406
A quote from Jim Ross' Ross
Report, three days before the mockery of
him on Nitro:
"Several of you have written
recently regarding my second bout with
Bells Palsy and how I'm
doing. I am still battling this affliction and
hope one day to be completely
healed from the facial paralysis and the
pain associated with it.
However, there is no known cure but I remain
optimistic that
I will be better in the
future. I still have not watched any of our TV
where I was cast as the
"disgruntled and postal" announcer with Doctor
Death. Don't plan to either.
Too personal and too painful for my
tastes. My family had a real
hard time with that storyline
and angle. And I don't buy it's just
fiction and it's just about
the damned ratings."
The Ross Report was dated
November 12, three days before Nitro. Did
Russo/WCW see this in the
article, and then decide to do the skit?
Interesting...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE ON
"ENTERTAINMENT"
Written by reader: Bill
Melden (Demas2000)
With your permission, I'd
just like to add a few quiet words to the
tumult over the Paul Wight
and Ed Ferrara "disease" angles. I am a
grown man, soon to be a
grandfather, and although I happen to suffer
from a mild disability, I'm
not particularly touchy about it; indeed,
when one is faced with such
problems in real life, it helps to find a
little humor in them.
But as we all know, there's a
huge difference between laughing about
yourself, or laughing with
someone you love, and laughing at somebody
else. I don't know much about
Jim Ross' particular condition, but
within my own extended family
I've seen everything from mental illness
to Cerebral Palsy, and I've
lost close relatives to cancer and heart
attacks. So I'm not speaking
entirely from ignorance.
The folks who say "Hey,
lighten up, it's entertainment," aren't being
entirely honest. "Chicago
Hope" and "NYPD Blue" and even the soap
operas are entertainment, and
they deal with real, tragic situations,
but they don't make cheap
shots and cheaper jokes about them. If a
character on a dramatic
series has AIDS, or Down's Syndrome, I
guarantee you the network
isn't going to play it for laughs. When was
the last time you saw Bart
Simpson teasing a retarded child, or heard
Seinfeld do a routine on how
funny Alzheimer’s is?
The point is that calling it
"entertainment" doesn't automatically
excuse it. There's
responsible entertainment, and there's vicious,
heartless crapola. The WWF
and WCW have both gone a few steps farther
down the second path with
these "disease" angles, and if
McMahon-Ferrara- whoever had
the decency of a three-year-old, they'd be
ashamed of themselves.
-Bill Melden
Demas2000@xxxxcxxxpol
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BACKYARD WRESTLING
Written by reader:
Moonsault187
Mark George wrote a column,
"Good, Bad and Ugly" and took some serious
jabs at some of the backyard
wrestling in that column. I agree with him
100% that some backyard
wrestling is way too violent and extreme for
kids my age (16) and younger
to be doing, hell, some of the things that
they do are more extreme than
most sane adults would do.
Still, I find it really funny
how these programs "REAL TV" and
"DATELINE", I believe, but I
love how these programs are quick to tape
and point out these extreme
battles. They are taking shots at pro
wrestling about that kind of
stuff, but what these programs don't show
are the feds of kids having
fun, just working on moves and not doing
anything serious to endanger
ourselves.
In my federation that I work
in, aptly called NQW (Not Quite
Wrestling), is just about
having something to do on the weekends, where
we wrestle on a trampoline
that we reformed to resemble a wrestling
ring. The hardcore matches
don't consist of barb wire, tables, chairs,
and glass, but of empty
plastic bottles, cardboard boxes, soft wiffle
ball bats, and the most
violent weapon there is a popcorn tin and lid.
The worst incident of injury
we had was when I was tossed through a
piece of cardboard set
amongst 2 plastic chairs, well the chairs
weren't facing out, so I
landed on one of the
Chairs. It didn't hurt at
all, I got a decent cut, but nothing like
these psychos do. We also
have a monthly slot on a cable access
channel, and an "NQW the
Music" that we pass around town, maybe one of
these channels should stop
worrying about psychos who look at wrestling
the wrong way, and look at
kids that watch wrestling for the right
reason, and have fun with it.
Thanks,
-Dan
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
MEANINGFUL SIGNS
Written by reader:
ladinDMX
I saw two signs on Raw that
sum up Russo, Ferrara, and WCW. One said
"WCW still sucks", the other
was "Russo is overrated". These are so
true. WCW is still getting
the crap kicked out of them in the ratings,
and those two idiots are
sinking lower than Vinnie Mac has. Just a
humble opinion.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NWA MEMORIES
Written by reader:
Larks91
My NWA reflections are from
the early 80s, Flair, Race, Rhodes, the
Briscos and the dean himself
Gordon Solie. My only intention every
Saturday night was to follow
the ever growing and intensifying feud
between Tommy (Wildfire)
Rich, and Mad Dog Buzz Sawyer. It never
failed that some
confrontation between the two, on camera or some venue
on the road, was caught on
film. (Today's rule is: IF ITS NOT ON FILM
IT DOESN'T COUNT).
The backstage brawls in
Georgia, S. Carolina, or wherever the WRESTLERS
used to go is a heck of a lot
better than where the (ENTERTAINERS) are
going today.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
JAPANESE HARDCORE BATTLES
Written by reader: Kevin
Bryce (KevinBryce)
I have watched the Japanese
Hardcore stuff, and to be honest I don't
really like it. It is just
Garbage wrestling with people in the ring
taking insane bumps, because
they cannot wrestle. The IWA Deathmatch
Tournament in 1994 was brutal
and watching Cactus Jack fall on Barbed
Wire from a Ladder isn't very
nice. The True form of Puroresu is
certainty better, and I would
rather watch Liger have Kanemoto in a
reverse chin-lock for 5
minutes than see someone fall on a bomb and
bust themselves open.
Now I must talk about the
ridiculous rivalry between WCW and the WWF.
OK, I can accept the two
companies are trying to beat each other, but
having tasteless angles and
insulting people isn't the way to do it.
Both companies are as bad as
each other and are a disgrace to
wrestling. NJPW & AJPW are
not friends, and they try to beat each
other, however they do
respect each other and know insults would not go
down well with the mainstream
Japanese media or fans.
NJPW & AJPW try to beat each
other with in-ring action, something WCW
and the WWF should learn
from. NJPW and AJPW are respected by the
mainstream media in Japan and
the sport of wrestling isn't treated as
some joke in Japan.
If the two promotions were to
do what WCW and the WWF do, Wrestling
would be regarded as a joke
and I dread to think how the media would
respond (probably like the
American media). The WWF & WCW are not
respected by the media in the
States and wrestling is not treated as a
Sport by most people in
America, this is no surprise, however, as both
companies do terrible things
and do not care about actual wrestling.
ECW is totally different from
the "Big 2" as the angles are not so
tasteless and their product
is not aimed at teenagers. The wrestling
is also top class, the titles
have world-wide recognition and the ECW
Heavyweight title is the most
prestigious in America (foreign wrestlers
challenging for it, and the
belt being defended in Japan proves this)
-Kevin Bryce, London
+++++++++++++++++++++
Steve Appy responds:
Kevin,
I enjoy ECW as much as the
next guy but I wouldn't call them that much
more tasteful than the WWF or
WCW. I would also say that their product
is definitely aimed at
teenagers, though probably not the pre-teens
that the WWF & WCW target.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SKIP IF YOU WOULD RATHER BE
SURPRISED!
SMACKDOWN Taping Results, for
Broadcast 11/18/99
Taped 11/16/99 at the
Cincinnati Gardens
Reported by Joel Boutiere at:
http://www.scoopswrestling.com
DARK MATCHES
'Superman' Steve Langly
defeats Johnny Swinger
Papi Chulo defeated Tom
Powers
Heat:
Starts with Bradshaw getting
some water from a cooler while Kaientai
(Taka and Funaki) stand
nearby. Brashaw bumps into Funaki, the three
have some words, and then
Taka and Funaki jump Bradshaw and get a few
shots in before running off.
Headbangers defeated Val
Venis & Shawn Stasiak
Val was actually getting good
face heat before he started insulting
Cincinnati for some cheap
heel heat. During the match, the 'World Wide
Filth' guy was walking around
by the ringside seats with his sign on
the pole (I've coined a great
new name for this guy: Sign Guy Mushnick
:*) Since the guy was walking
around where I was sitting, I wasn't
really paying attention to
the match, but I saw the Headbangers win.
Afterward, Val and Shawn get
into it, and Val knocks Shawn down and
gives him the Money Shot
before leaving.
Rikishi Fatu defeated Tracey
Smothers
Pretty much a squash match,
with Fatu finishing off with a piledriver
for the win.
D-Von Dudley defeated D'lo
Brown
At one point, D'lo went for
the Lo Down, but Buh Buh Ray pulled D-Von
out of the ring, so D'lo did
a cross body on both Dudleys from the
turnbuckle to outside the
ring! The ending was really sudden: D'lo
pulled D-Von back in the
ring, and D-Von gets the surprise rollup for
the pin.
Kaientai defeated Acolytes by
DQ in a Technical Match
The Acolytes got a big pop
when they came out and lots of face heat
during the match... so these
guys are faces now? As would be expected,
the match didn't stay
technical for long, as Bradshaw and Faarooq kept
throwing elbows and punches.
It soon degenerated into an all-out brawl,
so the ref threw the match
out. Both Taka and Funaki got Dominators
from Faarooq, and Bradshaw
did a nice fallaway slam from the second
rope.
Smackdown:
Show starts backstage with DX
beating on Brisco and Patterson. HHH
tells Pat to let Vince know
that Vince was the one who made it
personal.
After the theme song, we go
backstage again. Vince and his family has
found Pat & Gerry all bruised
up. Pat delivers the message to Vince,
and Vince says that he wants
to see HHH right now.
Match 1: Too Cool defeated
Edge & Christian
The match was OK, and ended
when Christian hit the Impaler, but the ref
wasn't looking. Grandmaster
Sexy then hit a top rope leg drop and
Scotty Too Hotty got the pin
on Christian.
After a break, we see Vince
storm up to HHH and chew him out. HHH tells
Vince twice to 'not make it
personal.'
Match 2: Kurt Angle defeated
Gangrel (with Luna)
"Sign Guy Mushnick" was back,
walking around the ring again. Funny
thing this time is a fan
walked around behind him with a sign saying,
'This guy sucks!' A minute or
so in, Angle does his thing where he
grabs a mike and yells at the
fan for cheering a 'guy who looks like a
vampire' rather than an
Olympic Gold Medalist. Angle does the 'best
REAL athlete' line from his
promo. Angle then gets back in the ring
and, after about a minute,
gets the pin.
We see DX conferring
backstage, but I couldn't hear what they were
talking about.
Back from break, we see Test
playing the new N64 game Wrestlemania 2000
while Stephanie unwraps
wedding gifts. Steph has to go out to the car
for something, but Test says
he'll go get it. Gee, I wonder what will
happen next? Sure enough,
Test walks outside and gets ambushed, first
by DX. They stuff him in the
trunk of a car and drive off. HHH remarks,
'I hope that's not too
personal for Vince.'
Match 3: British Bulldog
defeats the Godfather to retain the European
Title
Before the match, Godfather
brings up the last time he tried to give
Bulldog the hoes, and Bulldog
attacked him, so no hoes for the Bulldog!
The Mean Street Posse comes
out to help Bulldog, but they're detained
by the hoes (Godfather shows
remarkable foresight in this match: there
just happened to be three
hoes, one for each Posse member... smart!)
Sign Guy Mushnick was back,
and the same thing happened to the
Godfather that happened on
Raw: he grabbed the sign from the protestor,
which gave the Posse an
opening to attack, and roll the Godfather back
into the
ring for Bulldog to finish
him off and get the win. Afterward, they had
security guys take the former
Sign Guy Mushnick away.
Backstage, Vince is yelling
at HHH again, and Stephanie dashes in and
starts beating on HHH (please
don't tell me they're going to make
Stephanie a wrestler too...
oh, wait, they already did) for what he did
to Test. Vince says to call
the cops, and HHH threatens Stephanie.
Match 4: The Big Show beat
Hardcore Holly (with Crash Holly) to retain
the Heavyweight Title
Before TBS came out, Hardcore
Holly talked about how he had 'unfinished
business' with Show, and that
he hated 'fat' people like The Big Show.
It was your usual Big Show
match, with Show tossing Holly around like a
doll. Crash ran in, and for
some reason, there was no DQ, not that
Crash made that much of a
difference anyway. Big Show fought them both
off, then gave the
Showstopper to Hardcore Holly. Funny moment, Crash
tried to break up the pin by
Big Show, but he couldn't move him! After
the win, TBS chokeslams Crash
too, before the Big Bossman runs in to
beat on Show with his
nightstick.
Outside, Vince and Shane have
found Test, whose nose is broken again.
They help Test back to the
building.
Match 5: Kane (with Tori)
defeated Viscera
Tori came out with Kane, but
stayed at the top of the ramp for some
reason. Your typical big-man
match, with one big surprise when Viscera
actually pulled off one of
those X-Pac style spin kicks on Kane!
Eventually, they make it back
to the ring, where Kane manages to
chokeslam Viscera and get the
pin.
Backstage, Triple H, laughing
to himself, walks up to Vince's door and
knocks. He 'apologizes' for
everything that's gone on before and
offers Test a wedding
present. It didn't stay on screen for long, and I
couldn't tell what the hell
it was. It was black, and looked kind of
like a steering wheel or
something. Whatever it was, it pissed Vince
off enough to throw it
against the wall and slam the door in Triple H's
face. Triple H walked off,
still laughing.
They played a bit where J.R.
was on the phone with the detectives
investigating the Austin hit
and run. He told them to talk to his
lawyers, and also said they
might want to investigate Jerry Lawler,
calling him a certified,
'restaurant quality' (what the hell does that
mean?!?) They then showed a
shot of Lawler at the commentary table,
looking mighty teed off at
J.R.
Then we see McMahon putting a
police guard outside his dressing room
where Test, Shane, and
Stephanie are. He says to not let anyone who
doesn't have the last name
McMahon in.
Match 6: Ivory defeated Luna
and Jacqueline to retain the Women's
Championship
This was Hardcore rules, and
it was one of those lame brawls that go
all over the building. Only
cool part was when the match went into the
men's restroom, where there
were guys using the urinals still!
Finally, the match went to
the kitchens, where Ivory hit Luna with the
Cookie Sheet of Doom and got
the pin.
They showed some videos of
Mankind and Al Snow in Vegas, apparently for
this 'UPN Vegas Week' thing.
Looked pretty lame.
Match 7: Chris Jericho
defeated Mark Henry
Before the match, Mark talked
about how horrible it was for Jericho to
attack Chyna. Mark brings up
his problems with Chyna in the past, but
says he never would have gone
as far as Jericho did. Y2J time! Jericho
does a great promo where he
remarks that it's a shame that Chyna can't
hitchhike anymore, but at
least she can get the 'no-thumb' discount at
the manicurist.
We see the Dudleys on the
phone backstage, apparently with the
detectives. D-Von denies
driving the car, than hands the phone to Buh
Buh Ray, who says 'Hell, I
don't even drive!'
Lillian Garcia interviewed
the Rock. Rock does his usual Pavlovian
interview, and the fans
salivated on cue.
Match 8: The New Age Outlaws
defeated the Hardy Boyz to retain the Tag
Team Championships
An OK match with the ending
pretty much determined by anyone with half
a brain after the ref gets
bumped. X-Pac runs in and the fans cheer as
he screws up the Hardys'
chances of winning. Anyway, Hardys lose,
Outlaws win.
Before the break, we come
back to the McMahon clan. Shane claims he
smells something! After the
break, we see that McMahon's room has
filled with smoke, and
everybody runs out coughing.
Match 9: The Rock vs. The Big
Bossman (w/ Prince Albert)
A fairly by-the-books match,
with Rock hitting the Rock Bottom for the
pin. Afterward, the BBM and
Prince Albert double-team the Rock, with
The Big Show coming in for
the save. Then the Hollys come out, but the
Rock and TBS make short work
of them.
Backstage, Vince says he
blames DX for the fire. He goes after Triple
H, taking the security with
him and leaving Shane, Steph, and Test by
themselves (umm, can you say
bad move?)
Triple H comes out to the
ring to the usual chant. HHH then does
pretty much the same rant he
did on Raw, talking about how Vince
committed a crime against
him, and that Vince made it personal. He
claims the reason that Vince
doesn't like HHH as champion is because
HHH isn't one of Vince's
'boys' and that HHH did it all without the big
'push.' HHH then calls Vince
out, telling him to come by himself,
without the cops. Vince comes
to the ring and takes off his jacket,
ready for a fight, but HHH
says no way.
If Vince attacks HHH, HHH
will sue Vince, and besides, if HHH attacked
Vince, Vince would fire him
anyway. So HHH asks Vince to go to his
lawyers and get a contract
set up for
a match between Vince and HHH
at Armageddon. The stip is that if HHH
wins, Vince can do nothing
against him, including fire him, do anything
financial to him or anything.
Basically, HHH would be immune to Vince
if he wins. He says that it's
fitting this match would take place at
'Armageddon,' because it will
be a match to 'end it all' between Vince
and HHH.
Then we get a camera shot
backstage, where Test, Shane, and Stephanie
are all sitting and laying at
the bottom of a staircase, looking like
they've been thrown down.
Shane and Test were rubbing their arms like
they were hurt, and Stephanie
actually had a bunch of blood on her
forehead, but I don't know if
it was fake, or if she actually bladed!
Vince rushes out to help
them, and HHH mocks him, saying he better
'watch his step.' To close it
off, HHH said that he had two words for
all the scum in Cincinnati
who made him come here to do this show...and
I think you know them.
===========================================
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
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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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