.heuer004@gold.tc.umn.edu (Otto "Hack-Man" Heuer) wrote:
| CHRIS JERICHO may be headed to WCW, where he could form a
| tag team with CHRIS BENOIT.

Is he still the replacement for Terry Funk at the WWPF card or was CJ
replaced by Mondo Guerrero?

| From RAZOR RAMON's comments on Nitro (I'm going from reports as I
| haven't had time to pick up my tape of it yet), he will be joining two
| other wrestlers jumping from the WWF and going up against three WCW
| stars (probably STING, SAVAGE, and HOGAN).  One of the two groups will
| no doubt be the "Blood Runs Cold" trio, and DIESEL will no doubt be
| one of the guys teaming with RAZOR.  A hotline predicted that TOTAL
| PACKAGE LEX LUGER could be the third WWF team member, sent as a spy on
| 4 September 1995 (which would be the much anticipated heel turn for
| Luger).  Since TED DIBIASE's contract with the WWF is up in late
| August 1996 (and he just gave his 90-day notice), many RSPWers feel he
| will be the manager of the WWF guys in WCW.  All the speculation is
| that the WWF guys will run all over the WCW guys until HULK HOGAN
| squashes them all (no doubt pinning all three by himself at the same
| time in a cage).

Replace Savage and Hogan and this would be excellent (and a top
candidate for "feud of the year").

| RODDY PIPER and HULK HOGAN have been having a clash of egos in
| Canada while filming for a movie ("The Overlords"). 

Anyone know anything about this movie?  Sounds like an
action/adventure or scifi movie, which would be new ground for the
Huckster.

| MIKE TENAY and DUSTY RHODES will be announcing on Nitro for half of
| each show.  The other half will be HEENEN/BISCHOFF.  Replace Rhodes
| with FLAIR and they'd have something...

So were Tony and Larry there just for the first week or did WCW decide
to not go with Mike/Dusty?

| There are more and more rumors/speculation about LEX LUGER getting all
| the gold (except the Cruiser title) in WCW.  He currently holds the
| WCW TV title and half of the tag titles.  He was given another shot at
| the WCW World title when DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE wa stripped of the title
| shot.  He is supposed to be feuding with Konnan over the WCW US title
| (which WCW wants off Konnan as he isn't much help in getting the AAA
| guys into WCW).  

And if he throws this in the face of WCW when he is exposed as the WWF
spy, I suppose we can look for Hogan to win all the titles in one
night.  (blood_pressure++)

| TED DIBIASE has been rumored to have a multi-year ~$250,000
| per year contract offer from WCW to manage and/or as an announcer.

BTW, other estimated salaries and contract expiration dates can be
found on my wrestling links page (see my signature for the URL).

| TERRY TAYLOR has been instructing STEVE MONGO MCMICHAEL and
| KEVIN GREENE on the finer points of wrestling at the WCW Power Plant
| wrestling school.  RIC FLAIR and ARN ANDERSON worked with the NFLers
| also, though they didn't want to at first.

TAYLOR: Here is how you sell a move.
MONGO:  But Hogan promised me I wouldn't have to sell any moves.
FLAIR:  That's okay.  I'll put you both over, ignoring the fact that
        I'm burying my "legend" status for the sake of a horrid
        announcer and a guy signed for just one match.

| THE GREAT MUTA backed out of the 16 June 1996 Great American
| Bash PPV

Shit!

| apparently because he didn't want to job to DIAMOND DALLAS
| PAGE. 

How can Page be taken seriously unless main eventers will allow
themselves to be pinned by him?

| Ummm... Wasn't this (part of) the reason THE BELFAST BRUISER
| left the country?

...and non-main eventers like BB!

| THE ROAD WARRIORS quit WCW. 
| This is the second time in the last few months they have quit
| due money issues (their salaries compared to HALL and NASH).

Shit!

| The October 1996 Halloween Havoc PPV will have another Monster
| Truck match.  HULK HOGAN will take on RANDY MACHO MAN SAVAGE this
| year.

Shit!

| Wrestlers rumored to be heading into WCW: CHIP MINTON
| (olympian).

Both feds have an olympian coming in?  I haven't heard of either of
them.  Anyone know if one has a better workrate than the other?

| Wrestlers rumored to be gone from WCW: BELFAST BRUISER (also rumored
| to be back in a couple months), RENEGADE

Last week a second reason was given for Renegade: drug test failure.
This week a third reason was given: deviating from WCW policy.

| Due to a power outage, only two matches were seen on the 26 May 1996
| WWF PPV.  Three of the four matches "millions" missed

"millions" is in quotes here because someone from the WWF (probably
Barstow(sp) said that millions of fans who tuned in to the PPV were
cheated by mother nature.  Has *any* IYH PPV been ordered by
"millions"?  Has any non-WrestleManis been ordered by "millions"?
Hell, they didn't even sell the small arena out according to the
Torch!

| were played out
| again live on the 28 May 1996 replay (along with the taped versions of
| the other two matches).  The match with JAKE THE SNAKE ROBERTS was
| neither replayed nor re-wrestled. 

I believe it was just a filler match anyway, thrown in to keep the
crowd pacified until the power was back for the main event.

| The WWF pretty much copied the same
| UNDERTAKER angle as when he "died" last year (all heels attack UT).

So now we've had WCW copying WWF, WWF copying WCW, WCW copying
themselves, and now finally WWF copying themselves! :-)

| SUNNY is now managing the SMOKING GUNNS.

Is this simply copying ECW's angle where Woman managed someone else
(Shane possibly) just to turn on him when Sandman had a title shot, or
is Sunny just going to manage the tag champs, no matter who wins them
(thus becoming part of the title itself, something to be won)?

| Both AHMED JOHNSON and SUNNY have been pissing off other WWF wrestlers
| in the locker room, bragging about how over they are.

If this is the reason for the rumors of Sunny being gone in the near
future, I think Vince should evaluate who brings in more viewers:
Sunny or the wrestlers who are pissed off.

| There are rumors of CHRIS CANDITO and TAMMY SYTCH having a
| threesome with another WWF person.  This will not be turned into a WWF
| angle for the BODYDONNAS.

Any bets on whether it was Goldust? ;-)

| Vince is unhappy with the lack of weight loss by YOKOZUNA at
| his recent vacation to the Duke University fat farm, though he *did*
| manage to lose 35 pounds and will be returning.

35 pounds in a month would be really good, unless you look at it as a
percentage of former weight.

| the final count of paid attendance at the
| MSG card was 16534 paid, which makes for a $319411 gate (plus over
| $100000 in merchandize).

What's that?  5000 Diesel t-shirts?  I wonder if it includes food or
just WWF merchandize...

| GOLDUST will feud with YOKOZUNA.  "Shoot me Frankie" --Unnamed
| penguin in Bloom County

I can already hear the interviews: "Let me flow through your folds of
flesh (like water, not as sand)".

| In a dark match at the Raw tapings, THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR pinned THE
| MAN THEY CALL VADER after three clotheslines in less time than it
| takes to say "the man they call Vader".  

Shit!

| AHMED JOHNSON and THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR both received "steroid" chants
| at the Raw tapings.

Shah!

| Harvey Wippleman started refereeing matches at the Raw tapings.
| He will at least start out as a face ref, instead of the heel ref
| rumors that had been going around.

But he was being overly strict.  For instance, when Owen didn't
release the sharp shooter the instant the bell rang, his win got
reversed.

| King of the Ring tournament:
| 
|   Jake Roberts--------+          |                     |
|                       |-Roberts--+                     |
|   Hunter H Helmsley---+                                |

I realize Vince wants to make an example out of HHH for the MSG Clique
celebration, but he's really shooting himself in the foot by jobbing
HHH to Jake and others.

| Wrestlers rumored to be heading into the WWF: TONY "DIRTY WHITE BOY"
| ANTHONY, TRACY SMOTHERS, DUANE JOHNSON (son of ROCKY JOHNSON), THE
| PUNISHER, WILD BILL IRWIN, TOM "JOHNNY GUNN" BRANDI, ALEX PORTEAU,
| BRIAN CHRISTOPHER (son of Jerry Lawler, even though Brian just turned
| heel in the USWA), DOUG FURNAS, DAN KROFFAT, BRET THE HITMAN HART, JIM
| THE ANVIL NEIDHART, MR PERFECT CURT HENNIG (wrestling by
| mid-November), BUDDY LANDEL (October), SID VICIOUS, MARC HENRY
| (olympian).

Apparently, Cornette suggested several of the above names and Vince
agreed to bring them in on Jimbo's recommendation.  They'll be jobbing
to the JTTS, and only winning matches against no-name jobbers, but at
least they have a paycheck.

| Wrestlers rumored to be heading out of the WWF: THE BODYDONNAS,

If Vince axes the Bodydonnas, would Candito have a problem with Sunny
continuing to work for the WWF?

| SUNNY (I really doubt this, but it has been reported by numerous
| sources).

If Vince axes Sunny he might as well close up shop.

| LOOSE CANNON BRIAN PILLMAN plans to do an interview from a
| wheelchair at ECW arena 1 or 8 or 9 June 1996.

I probably should have done some more digging and found out which day
it would be (three separate sources gave different days) but as I said
in my disclaimer at the top of the original article, I'm really
pressed for time.

| BEULAH is in The Best of Cheri Special Issue #82.  Her stage
| name there is TRINITY.

Anyone know her real name?

| ECW may have PPV#1 as early as August 1996.

It would be late August at the earliest, but I wouldn't be surprised
if it didn't make it this year.  August would be good, as it's after
the Big Two's big summer PPVs but before the Big Two have their year
end big PPVs.

| PAUL E DANGEROUSLY sent a letter earlier this month to rival
| promoter DENNIS CORALUZZO urging him to ban blood at his NWA
| promotion.  My guess is that Paul is more concerned about fans jumping
| to the NWA since Paul banned the blade in ECW.

I *really* hope Paul gets over this blood-free wrestling mindset
before the PPV.  I'm sure I'll find a way to watch the PPV anyway, but
there'd be no stopping me if I knew it would have something like an
Ian vs Axl BWBB match.

| LOOSE CANNON BRIAN PILLMAN is set to meet with WCW late this
| week.  He met with the WWF last week.

I really hope he signs back on with WCW.  The Savage "Loose Cannon"
can't hold a candle to the original and I feel Pillman's genius would
be lost in the WWF (much like Vader jobbing to everyone and their
grandmother's dog in the WWF).

| 18-20 May 1996 (from hotlines, RSPW, WWW, and Entertainment Weekly):
| 
|        Raw          = 3.1
|        Action Zone  = 2.1
|        WWF Mania    = 1.1
| 
|        Nitro        = 2.3

This was for the 90-minute Nitro.  Since in the past I've seen people
give Nielsen ratings for particular matches during the Clash of
Champions (e.g.: three million people watched the CoCa, but for the
Hogan main event there were 4.8 million viewers) I'm wondering if
we'll be able to get individual ratings for each of the two hours for
Nitro each week.

|        Nitro Repeat = 1.0

Nice to see WCw (combined feeds) is back to beating WwF (combined west
and east coast feeds) again.

|        WCWSN        = 2.0
|        WCW Pro      = 1.2
|        WCWME        = 1.9
|        Slamboree    = 0.4 (6308 paid out of 7791, for a $104760 gate)

So, did they make more from the gate or from the PPV buys. :-)