I know Hack Notes is supposed to be "A Wednesday Thing", but since I did a piss-poor one on 17 April and I haven't seen Herb's Tidbits for 18 April, I figured I'd throw out a little more info before next Wednesday. = = = = = = = = = = [ WCW ] = = = = = = = = = = UnCensored did a 0.73 buyrate. This translates to 175000 buys. WCW grossed around $2,200,000 from it. This still makes it the most-watched WCW PPV since last year's UnCensored. I haven't seen anyone post much about the interviews Eric Bischoff gave recently, so I'll cut and paste a sound-bite here: "Vince McMahon is an egomaniacal punk ... Ted [Turner] asked me [last summer] what I needed to get [WCW's] ratings up. I told him I needed to get a shot at prime time. He looked me right in the eye and asked how soon I could do it ... everybody who knows [Turner] knows that if you stand up and say I can do it, he'll give you enough rope to either catch horses or hang yourself. And I caught horses ... If there's a Burger King [that's] doing well drawing people who are hungry, if you're McDonald's you're going after that market. And to think that's unfair is insane. It's childish. The truth is something that is clearly not a part of [Vince's] agenda ... I'm not sure [Ramon and Nash are] going to join WCW. It's more than up in the air ... Vince McMahon [is saying] that Turner was using his billions of dollars to beat up poor little McMahon. He was floating figures about money that was offered to people that I've never even had a conversation with ... that I offered 1-2-3 Kid half a million dollars. I've never even offered him a beer. I've never had a conversation with him. I can assure you that I have not offered anyone $700,000 in a three year contract ... Kevin Nash has always had a pretty big mouth [and] has never hesitated to talk first and think second ... I'm not sure what Brian Pillman is going to do. Since we're in negotiations with him, I'm probably not going to jump out and say too much about it. I'll say this on the record. I respect Brian as a person. He's handling this as a professional ... I don't think he's going anywhere anytime soon ... He's a talented guy and we'll do anything we can to keep him and we'll see where it goes." [Note that this was before Pillman's accident] As reported by everyone: Pillman was in a car accident, wrapped his car (or his Hum-Vee) around a tree, was in a coma, and is now doing better. Someone please post a newspaper article to RSPWI so we can get a more factual story than I'm able to piece together. His WCW contract expired on 17 April 1996. See my WWW page for other contract expirations. Hogan was supposed to do a stretcher job on Nitro and take some time off, but changed the booking at the last minute. WCW wasn't happy with the change of plans. = = = = = = = = = = [ WWF ] = = = = = = = = = = Bret not shaking Shawn's hand, driving away from the arena, and no-showing the post-WrestleMania party was a work. Vince is trying to capture the fire that Pillman has/had by scripting angles and not letting all his workers know about it. WrestleMania did between a 1.2 and 1.8 buyrate. The WWF will say they did a 1.7 (430000 buys) which means they made around $5,700,000 from it. Without Nitro to compete with, Monday Night Raw pulled in a 4.7 rating, beating out their previous high of 3.9 back on 29 May 1995. This translates to about 3,050,000 homes watching a taped Raw mostly for the Ultimate Warrior interview. They still haven't passed the 3,200,000 viewers who watched the January 1988 Royal Rumble special on USA. Jay Andronico (WWF employee) says they have toned down the Goldust character in response to negative press they have been getting. The tour of Germany has been one of the worst for the WWF. They aren't able to sell out the arenas--in the past they've had to turn people away. Hunter vs Dumpster has been getting zero heat. HOG/PIG vs Snow/123 has been the poorest match from house show to house show, mostly due to Waltman missed most of his spots (timing off). "Diesel ... helped turn me into a man." --Shawn Michaels (WWF Magazine) After Diesel jobs to Michaels at the April In Your House, he'll do a few house shows and wrestle his WWF fairwell match on 19 May 1996 at MSG (which will also be Razor's last WWF match, as he gets buried by TMTC Vader). Neither one will be at the 26 May 1996 PPV. Well, since I swiped an interview of Bischoff for the WCW section, I guess I can insert a Bret Hart soundbite in the WWF section to even things out. This was taken from the 22 March 1996 NewSport interview. "There is rumor of [him jumping to WCW] but it's news to me ... it's not a matter of money. I mean the money is very nice, but I'm in it more for the art form, I think ... I don't even like their rings. Their rings are smaller and bouncier ... [When I] lose to Shawn Michaels [at WrestleMania, I will] seriously consider hanging up my tights ... Hulk Hogan was this tremendous hero to me ... I offered my hand and he never accepted it ... I wasn't this guy who had busted my ass for so many years on his undercards and had worked hard ... instead I was opposition to him ... = = = = = = = = = = [ ECW ] = = = = = = = = = = Ummm... nothing. = = = = = = = = = = [ MISC ] = = = = = = = = = = All Japan Pro Wrestling's attendance continues to plummet. Abdullah the Butcher jumped from All Japan Pro Wrestling to Tokyo Pro Wrestling. At the 9 March 1996 All World Wrestling card in Kenosha WI, Nailz threw a chair which accidentally hit a little girl. She was taken from the arena crying. California's All Pro Wrestling hotline (510) 888-2454 Wisconsin's Mid-America Wrestling hotline (414) 777-3941 Virginia's Ultimate Championship Wrestling hotline (540) 967-9606 For Torch subscription info, write to Wade Keller My name's listed as "correspondent" in the 20 April 1996 issue. Guess I'm famous now. ;-) As always, the info in this post comes from various sources, wrestlers, promoters, hotlines, online forums, and newsletters. All names are trademarks of someone else. :-) This article is copyright 1996 Otto E Heuer. All rights reserved. E Heuer. All rights reserved.