Wrasslin Newsletter

April 2, 1996 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Preview for
Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart Iron Match Match at

WrestleMania, WCW Uncensored receives scathing
reviews, one of worst matches ever featured
Written by Bryan Alvarez Tuesday, 02 April 1996 01:25
Wrestling Observer Newsletter

PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 April 1, 1996
WCW UNCENSORED
Thumbs up 12
Thumbs down 147
In the middle 19
BEST MATCH POLL
Eddie Guerrero vs. Konnan 37
David Finlay vs. Steve Regal 36
Road Warriors vs. Sting & Booker T 33
WORST MATCH POLL
Doomsday cage match 102
Booty Man vs. Diamond Dallas Page 14
Based on phone calls and fax messages to the Observer as of Tuesday, 3/26. Statistical
margin of error: +-100%
Riding the most momentum the company has had in four years, the World Wrestling
Federation will present its biggest show of the year this weekend and potentially its best
match in its history.
The latter statement, which WWF has been using in hyping of the Bret Hart vs. Shawn
Michaels one hour Iron Man match for the WWF title, puts tremendous pressure on the
combatants. Never before has a major promotion basically told the fans they are going to
see the greatest athletic match in the history of the promotion leading up to a PPV show.
With expectations put at such a high level, if the two come through, it'll be a match
remembered for years. But if they slip up just a tad, and going one hour with today's
style of wrestling is asking a lot from both men, it'll be considered a disappointment.
The last time two wrestlers in the United States were asked to go one hour, well almost
one hour, on a major national show, was the Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat NWA world
title match on April 2, 1989. The match, a two of three fall match which went 55:00 with
Steamboat winning at the end, was on a free WCW Clash of Champions which went
head-to-head with Wrestlemania X during the time both promotions were actually
spending more energy attempting to sabotage each other's big shows than they are
during today's overall more heated wrestling war. That match came through with flying
colors, a match of the year all-time classic that no doubt will the standard that Hart and
Michaels will ultimately be judged against. On a more modern standpoint, the most
recent mens one hour singles match was in January of 1995, between Kenta Kobashi and
Toshiaki Kawada. They came through as well, establishing themselves as perhaps the
two premier wrestlers in the world.
Hart, 38, has done several marathon matches before, in a title defense or two in 1993
against Ric Flair and in a few times in 1994 against his brother Owen. Reports on the
matches vary, but nobody ever attempted to compare them with the Flair-Steamboat
match of '89, or for that matter, the numerous hour-long matches Flair and Steamboat
did earlier in their career that were off the charts for that time frame as well. Michaels
did some marathon tag matches many years back as part of the Rockers, but that's
different than singles, and in those matches, time was heavily shaved and the matches
were more like 40 minutes.
In the case of Hart, there is dual pressure, since it is being teased that this could be his
retirement match in a last weekend bit of WWF hype. Hart, on the Chet Coppock sports
talk show on 3/19, hinted that if he lost the match to Michaels, which is the expected
result although nothing is 100% until it happens, that he would consider retiring, a
statement that was obviously a well planned out part of the storyline that was played up
big over the weekend on WWF broadcasts. If Hart were truly retiring for good, the hype
would be considerably different than this, but the nature of the actions of the promotion
of this are somewhat similar to how they handled Hulk Hogan in 1992. Before that
Wrestlemania, they teased strongly it would be his retirement, saying he'd make a
decision that night, and then failed to deliver the payoff as the show finished not only
without a clean victory, but without the Hogan announcement. Hogan took a sabbatical
largely so all the heat on him would dissipate and he could begin anew many months
later. With Hart there is no outside heat and he wasn't caught somewhere with his pants
down or speaking with a forked tongue so to speak, but he's talked about getting into
acting. The original speculation that he would be leaving for a regular role in "Lonesome
Dove" (which he has appeared in several episodes of already) may have fallen through
since the show has been canceled.
There has been considerable debate over Hart vs. Michaels dating back months to when
the decision was originally made to put Michaels over. Supposedly and it is widely
believed, that was either the main reason or one of the reasons for Bill Watts' falling out
with Vince McMahon just a few weeks after being given the booking position last year.
Watts was a proponent of Hart over Michaels as long-term champion, and as the story
goes, McMahon was a proponent of Michaels, now 30. McMahon had, at a wrestlers'
meeting, said Watts would have control over that aspect and he wasn't going to be
overruled, and Watts took that statement seriously and wanted to change some longterm plans, with much speculation being over who would be on top. In recent weeks, the
debate has come back for several reasons. First, Hart as a personality has surprisingly
totally overshadowed Michaels in the television build-up to this event, surprisingly in
the sense that of the two, Michaels was considered the better personality. Secondly,
WWF business is the strongest it has been in years, and there is a theory that you don't
change champions when business is making a turnaround. The argument continues
when it comes to this business turnaround. Supporters of Hart will point out that at
virtually all these shows where business has picked up, it was Hart, not Michaels, that
was in the headline and drawing position on the cards and that a turnaround can be
pointed to just a few weeks after Hart picked up the title from Diesel. On a few shows,
both were on opposite side of advertised tag matches, but most of the recent strong gates
were for either triangular matches that Michaels wasn't one of the three involved, or for
Hart vs. Undertaker title matches. In addition, the most recent In Your House, which
also did well, had Hart-Diesel on top and clearly that was the catalyst for that buy rate
far more than Michaels' match with Owen Hart. Supporters of Michaels can point out
that you can trace a significant upswing in attendance and buy rates directly to the
period starting with the Royal Rumble, when Michaels returned after his "careerending" injury angle and that his return was the prime factor, and not the HartUndertaker match, in the shockingly good buy rate of that show. While Michaels was
gone, the buy rate for the December PPV with Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith was the lowest
in the history of the promotion. In most arenas, Michaels' reaction has been the best of
anyone on the show. And while Hart may be his equal, or even his superior when it
comes to matches on PPV shows because Hart has better psychology and a better flair
for the dramatic, on a nightly basis, Michaels, puts on better matches.
Either way, this is a match of two wrestlers who are at the top of their profession, with a
few weeks of rest leading up to the match to heal up any minor hurts get into top
cardiovascular condition, in the biggest match of each's respective careers on the mosthyped show of the year in their country. They are in the spotlight, in some ways like
never before, and will be given all the time and probably more time than they'll ever
need to put on their best match. Years ago in hyping Wrestlemania there was a slogan
that Wrestlemania was what the world was watching. While that was more hype than
anything, it would not be an exaggeration that this year, it's not Wrestlemania, but these
two wrestlers and this one match, that whatever microcosm of the world closely follows
pro wrestling, will be watching and possibly remembering for years to come.
The 12th installment of Wrestlemania, which still, with the possible exception of New
Japan Tokyo Dome shows, is the card of the year on a world wide basis, takes place
Sunday at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, CA. One can argue back and forth what is
truly the card of the year. The Tokyo Dome shows draw more people live and do millions
at the live gate. Wrestlemania will have far more viewers paying because of PPV and it
total gross dollars, produce more revenue although a large share goes to the cable
companies. Wrestlemania also has the edge in that the WWF has more television outside
its base country than New Japan, thus has far more international interest. The Tokyo
Dome shows, since pro wrestling is more popular in Japan than the U.S., have far more
general public interest within their country.
The Iron man match in a sense shows a 180 degree change in the WWF's philosophy
from the first Wrestlemania, back in 1985. In 1996, the company is putting arguably its
two best in-ring performers and putting them in the situation to have a classic match.
The wrestlers, both of whom would be considered in the junior heavyweight division by
Japanese standards, are the focal point of the show due to their in-ring ability. At the
first WrestleMania, the focal point of the show were the celebrities, Liberace, Mr. T,
Muhammad Ali, Billy Martin and Cyndi Lauper, with the idea that being associated with
them would bring a celebrity rub off on Hulk Hogan and Wendi Richter, primed to take
pro wrestling to a new level. It worked wonders with the former and really didn't work at
all with the latter, who is now a wrestling trivia question.
That first Wrestlemania, on March 31, 1985 in Madison Square Garden, was the show
that made the WWF. Before the days of PPV (there actually was some PPV of the first
Wrestlemania but it was very limited to the point it was almost insignificant), McMahon
went the boxing route and attempted a national closed-circuit show and it may be
accurate to say he was rolling the dice with his entire company's future on this show. The
only previous pro wrestling attempt at doing this, nine years earlier for a mixed match
with Ali against Antonio Inoki, was largely a box office flop. One week before the first
Wrestlemania, it appeared to largely be a flop in the making as advances were poor in
most locations. After running around cancelling many buildings and putting on what is
probably still the greatest week of hype in the history of this industry, the show came
through as a financial success. An aesthetic success? It depends upon what one was
looking for. Suffice to say, if both Hart and Michaels have their worst day possible on
Sunday, their match will still be world's better than anything on that first Wrestlemania.
By Wrestlemania II, on April 5, 1986, the WWF expanded to holding the show in three
locations--the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago, the Nassau Coliseum and the Los Angeles
Sports Arena. This time the company went way overboard on celebrities, and diluted the
show in some ways by having three locations. That show was also built around a
celebrity, pro footballer William "Refrigerator" Perry of the Chicago Bears, coming off a
weird cult favorite year as the overweight lineman who would occasionally carry the ball
on short yardage situations on a famous Super Bowl winning team. Perry, along with
several other NFL players, was put in a Battle Royal, although not put over in the Battle
Royal, however even in Chicago, it was something of an embarrassment live as only
about 9,000 fans--a half house--attended. Nassau and Los Angeles both drew nearly full
houses, and the infatuation with celebrities hit its peak when after the strongest in-ring
match of the show, where the British Bulldogs captured the WWF tag team titles from
Greg Valentine & Brutus Beefcake, Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith were outside the
ring so as not to take center stage away from the "real star" of the match, rocker Ozzy
Ozbourne who was in their corner parading around the ring with the title belts.
In some ways, the most famous Wrestlemania of them all was III, on March 29, 1987 at
the Pontiac Silverdome in front of "93,000" fans. Whatever the real number was, and
sources involved with the the show have claimed it was really 78,000 but people have
said the other number for so long that everyone actually believes it now, it was, and still
is, far and away the biggest audience to attend a live wrestling event indoors in history,
and ever in North America. Whatever the number really was, the show sold out weeks in
advance and could have legitimately drawn more than 100,000 fans live if the building
was large enough, interest was that high. It was the show that put pro wrestling on the
map when it came to PPV, drawing an eight percent buy rate. It was also the best
Wrestlemania of the first nine or so, even though the Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant
main event has to rank very close to the top of any list of the worst PPV main event in
history (although it may have been surpassed this past weekend). This time the showstealer was Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage, which, prior to Wrestlemania X, was
generally considered the greatest match in the modern history of the WWF.
Wrestlemanias IV and V, both at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, were a big drop-off in
many ways. Both shows went head-up with NWA Clash of the Champions shows, and a
combination of poor wrestling and a dead crowd of high rollers live led to the NWA
shows in many ways overshadowing things. On free television, the NWA Clash of
Champions, drew many times more viewers and presented classic main events each
year, the legendary Flair-Sting match on March 27, 1988 which was the match that
turned Sting into a name performer; and the aforementioned Flair-Steamboat match
from New Orleans one year later. Each was match of the year for their particular year.
The WWF held a lacklustre title tournament in 1988, won by Savage. The next year,
thanks in part to some of the greatest television build-up in the history of wrestling, the
Wrestlemania series peaked from a financial standpoint with the Hogan-Savage match
where Hogan regained the title from a recently turned-heel Savage. The undercard that
year was lacklustre as well.
No doubt the biggest surprise in the history of Wrestlemania was the main event of
Wrestlmania VI. Hulk Hogan's loss to the Ultimate Warrior, his only clean pinfall loss
since the early 80s in Japan, was not a surprise at the time and in fact, the wire services
actually ran a national story the day of the show stating he would be losing since he was
taking a hiatus to make a movie, the infamous "No Holds Barred," repercussions of
which were still being felt as of this past weekend. What was a surprise was that the two
men put on a thrilling match. While if one were to watch the match on tape the next day,
or more so years later, you can see it was 70% rest-holds and it would be evident if any
other two wrestlers did, move-for-move, the same match, it would be considered an
average match, at the moment the match was a shicker. Wrestlemania VI also has a
footnote in history since it was the largest live gate ever to attend a pro wrestling event
in the Western Hemisphere, some 64,287 fans paying $3.4 million American.
Wrestlemania VII was the most tasteless in history, built around the Persian Gulf War.
The event, originally slated for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and its 90,000
capacity, slated to be announced as breaking the Pontiac Silverdome announced record,
had to be moved indoors, supposedly because of bomb threats but more likely because of
a weak advance. The WWF also got the bad news about a week before the event took
place that the Persian Gulf war that the storyline was built around was over, so they had
to change the storyline into pretending the war was still going on until the match at
Wrestlemania was over. Sgt. Slaughter, who captured the WWF title from Warrior in
January, lost the belt back to Hogan on March 23, 1991. Savage, who interfered in the
title change match costing Warrior the title, had a loser must retire match against
Warrior which stole the show. Savage, who actually was telling friends at the time he was
planning on retiring and this retirement was real, lost the match. As far as the
retirement went, the more things change in wrestling, the more they stay the same.
Wrestlemania VIII was moved back to a huge stadium, the Hoosier Dome in
Indianapolis on April 5, 1992. While they came close to filling the building with 62,167
fans, it was heavily papered. It was also Hart's first Wrestlemania in the spotlight, as he
beat Roddy Piper to win the IC title for the second time. Savage regained the WWF title
from Ric Flair, who had come into the federation several months earlier winning the title
in the Royal Rumble. The main event, billed as perhaps Hogan's retirement match, saw
Hogan beat Sid Justice via DQ (Sid Eudy) when Harvey Whippleman interfered, thus
ending the WM streak of providing 1-2-3s in the top match. Perhaps the most significant
aspect of this show was Eudy being caught one week before the show cheating on a
steroid test, and still working the main event, during a period that the heat on steroids
was at its peak.
By WrestleMania IX, the face of the WWF had changed again. Hogan was supposedly
retired. Due to steroid crackdowns and other problems, most of the WWF's headliners
disappeared as 1992 continued. Savage winning the title from Flair the previous year at
Wrestlemania in their first meeting proved a major error as Flair-Savage rematches had
no drawing power with Flair in the challengers role. After a nosedive in business and
television ratings, the company went back to Flair as champion. It didn't work either,
and with Warrior and Smith, two of the company's most popular wrestlers, both being
fired, they went with Hart, who was very popular in Europe, where the was having great
success, although not considered world title material based on the previous criteria. Hart
was not the answer to the problems at that time, but in hindsight, with all the problems
the WWF was facing, it's doubtful anything could have been. On April 4, 1993, Hart's
title reign ended at the hands of Yokozuna, who then seconds later dropped it in an
impromptu match to Hulk Hogan in 21 seconds. The show, back to casinoland, this time
at Caesar's in Las Vegas, was generally considered a poor event.
That can't be said for Wrestlemania X, which from a show standpoint, was the crowning
jewel in the series. Back in Madison Square Garden for the first time in nine years on
March 20, 1994, it was this week's main eventers, Hart and Michaels, who stole the
show. Bret lost to younger brother Owen in what may have been the greatest match up
to that point in the modern history of the WWF. If it was, it didn't last long because
Michaels had the classic ladder match with Razor Ramon. Although Michaels lost, he
came out of it as anything but a loser because he erased any doubts as to whether or not
he was the rising superstar of the industry. In an anti-climactic main event, Hart
regained the title from Yokozuna, who had beaten Hogan nearly one year earlier when
Hogan decided to quit the company, leaving a frustrated Hart in his wake since Hogan
never did the passing-of-the-torch job to the new standard-bearer on his way out. Hart's
winning was a story in itself since the title was scheduled to go to Lex Luger. However,
Luger's push, the biggest in company history aside to the one given Hogan, was a major
flop and Hart seemed to be the star in the eyes of the fans, partially because he wasn't
being shoved down people's throats. At the Royal Rumble, where the two went out
simultaneously in a tie, it was clear Hart, and not Luger, was the fans' choice. At
Wrestlemania, they had Yokozuna defend the title against both, with Hart coming out on
top.
Wrestlemania XI was another great promotional build-up, but somehow it didn't pay off
and with almost drastic results. They went back to football, this time to future Hall-ofFamer Lawrence Taylor with a great angle against Bam Bam Bigelow. Unfortuantely, for
all the talk and the press the angle created and the upswing in Monday Night television
ratings, the buy rate was a flop and many credited the unexpectedly low amount of buys
to result in a lot of belt squeezing within Titan Sports in the months following the show
and the opening WCW took advantage of to become the most competitive promotion
against the WWF in years. Taylor's name value, which was huge in the Northeast where
Titan was headquartered, wasn't as big nationally despite him being the premier
defensive player in the league during his era and the 1.4 buy rate was well below
estimates of 2.0 that were considered conservative predictions going into the event.
Taylor and Bigelow as a match was better than anyone could have ever expected, while
Michaels got his first WM main event as the challenger losing to Diesel. Michaels turned
face the next day, and has been on a course for the top spot ever since.
HART AND MICHAELS' WRESTLEMANIA RESULTS

II - Hart in Battle Royal won by Andre the Giant
III - Hart & Jim Neidhart & Danny Davis b Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith & Tito
Santana
IV - Hart in Battle Royal won by Badnews Brown
V - Akeem (One Man Gang) & Big Bossman (Bubba Rogers) b Michaels & Marty
Jannetty; Hart & Jim Neidhart b Greg Valentine & Honkytonk Man
VI - Hart & Jim Neidhart b Nikolai Volkoff & Boris Zhukov; Pat Tanaka & Akio Sato b
Michaels & Jannetty-COR
VII - Michaels & Jannetty b Barbarian & Haku (Meng); Nasty Boys b Hart & Neidhart to
win WWF tag team titles
VIII - Michaels b Tito Santana; Hart b Roddy Piper to win IC title
IX - Tatanka b Michaels-COR so Michaels kept IC title; Yokozuna b Hart to win WWF
title
X - Owen Hart b Hart; Razor Ramon b Michaels in ladder match for IC title; Hart b
Yokozuna to win WWF title
XI - Hart b Bob Backlund in I Quit match; Diesel b Michaels to retain WWF title
**********************************************************
WCW Uncensored on 3/24 from the Tupelo, MS Coliseum received blistering reviews.
Many wrote and faxed in that they believed it to have been the worst PPV show in
history. For a show that had three matches out of seven that were good, that's a harsh
review and one I can't go along with. However, the main event may go down as the worst
main event in PPV history. It was a fiasco on more different levels than the number of
levels of cages in the stage area.
The show drew about 9,000 fans--roughly 100 shy of capacity, with 7,300 paying
$104,000. As a live crowd, it showed an increase over Uncensored last year in the same
building.
However, the main event, a not well thought out two-on-eight match involving Hulk
Hogan and Randy Savage turned out to be even worse than one would have figured
going in, and going in people were expecting the worst. The rules of the match were
never explained, and in hindsight it appears because nobody had figured them out. On
one television show they said the match would be held in the Triple Tower of Doom, a
contraption Kevin Sullivan came up with nearly eight years ago for a PPV event. By the
TBS show the day before the event, fans were told it would be a four deck cage, complete
with trap doors, and it was emphasized that Brian Pillman would be part of the heel
team plus they would have a surprise mystery man to finish out the squad as the plans
from the previous weekend were changed once again. As it turned out, despite spending
the better part of the Saturday show building the match around Pillman being there, he
wasn't, and the two slots were taken by Meng & The Barbarian. Reports were that
Pillman couldn't make it due to medical complications stemming from his throat surgery
the previous week and WCW was aware of it by Thursday afternoon. When the WCW
Saturday Night show was taped on Wednesday night, they weren't aware Pillman wasn't
going to be there, although it's not clear whether they actually informed him that he was
going to be announced as being in the main event before taping the interviews
announcing it to the world. When Pillman informed the office the next day he wasn't
going to be there, they had two days to make whatever edits were necessary to not false
advertise, but aired the show as is anyway. Then, after spending the Saturday show
hyping Pillman as the main last minute thrust for late buys, on the Sunday Main Event
show, being done live, they never once mentioned Pillman wasn't going to be in the
match as advertised. Even WWF couldn't resist making remarks about bait-and-switch
on PPVs the next night on Raw. On Nitro the day after the show, Eric Bischoff gave as a
lame reason for Pillman not being there that he refused to team up with Kevin Sullivan,
so Pillman wasn't buried on the air for not being there as some had speculated would
happen since there was heat regarding it.
The rules were explained that Hogan & Savage would have to beat everyone on the heel
team in order to eliminate them.

What happened was something different. The cage was three decks, and with no mat on
the top two decks. This made it very difficult to get good footing or take meaningful
bumps. Thus even with Ric Flair & Arn Anderson on the top level, the action was
horrible. But once they had powder thrown in their eyes, and no pinfalls, they were
temporarily eliminated, and things got worse. At one point Hogan, Savage, Kevin
Sullivan and Lex Luger left the entire cage area (what's the point of a cage if everyone
can easily get out?) and went to the original ring and had several minutes of generally
bad action. And then Jeep Swenson, with his third ring name of the week, this time
called The Ultimate Solution, and the former Zeus who took Hogan and Savage back into
the cage. By this point the match, a nightmare from the start that seemed to never end,
got worse. Swenson and Zeus lived up to all expectations that they didn't have clue one.
And there was a lot of controversy both among the wrestlers and from the outside
regarding the newcomers. Some saw it as living proof of a double standard on the steroid
issue, as if there is any standard at all to begin with. The WCW wrestlers have been told
to get off steroids as its company policy and many have gotten off steroids. More and
more see company policy as not being the same for all concerned. Others, forgetting that
issue, felt using two guys with absolutely no ability and putting them in a PPV main
event was bad for a company in which numerous wrestlers with the company can't even
get on a PPV show. If the show doesn't do well in the buy rate, which given how hot pro
wrestling is right now, is very unlikely, there would be heat on Hogan since he pretty
much put it together on his own. But many people, Hogan included, deserve heat for the
lack of organization, the bait-and-switch tactics and the overall awful product quality as
it concerns the main event.
All things being considered, the show probably deserves a thumbs down, although I'd
rate it as close to a thumbs in the middle because of the Regal-Finlay match. Although
the Road Warriors match to me was the best match on the show, the Regal-Finlay match
because of its legitimate brutality, was so unique that it was hard for me to be as
negative as most regarding the show as a whole. But the show was built around the cage
gimmick and the main event, and even if the undercard had been good (and it was closer
to average), there was no excuse for what they put on as a main event.
A. J.L. (Jerry Lynn) upset Dean Malenko (Dean Simon) in 3:20 when Malenko went for
a rana and J.L. didn't roll all the way over with it and got the pin. The winner of this
match was to advance in the cruiserweight tournament (perplexing enough as it is since
Shinjiro Otani already holds the title) and got a shot at the U.S. title the next night. Good
but too short. Out of 11 matches on the show, this was one of only two that actually had a
clean-as-a-sheet non-interference non foul ending. **
B. Jim Duggan pinned Bubba Rogers (Ray Traylor) in 3:20. V.K. Wallstreet came to
ringside with Duggan's 2x4 and gave it to Bubba. As Bubba and ref Nick Patrick wrestled
over the board, Duggan taped his fist and KO'd Bubba getting the three count. Bad and
thankfully short. 1/4*
C. Dick Slater pinned Alex Wright in 1:55. Madusa was chasing Col. Parker around
ringside and this distracted Wright. This gave Slater the opening to clock Wright with
his cowboy boot and score the pin. DUD
D. Rick & Scott Steiner (Robert & Scott Rechsteiner) went to a no contest with the Nasty
Boys (Brian Yandrisovitz & Jerry Seganowich) in 5:19 when the Road Warriors
interfered, attacking both teams. Crowd was into the match while it lasted. Outside
interference was getting old already, and we hadn't even started the PPV. **
1. Konnan (Charles Ashenoff) retained the U.S. title pinning Eddie Guerrero in 18:27.
This was a match killed by announcers who hadn't familiarized themselves with what
these guys do, which, since Guerrero has been around for so long and Konnan is U.S.
champion, is no longer something that should be excused. They did some nice wrestling
early. Crowd was more into Guerrero but cheered Konnan as well. As they were doing
submissions, the announcers didn't explain what was going on, including ignoring a
camel clutch (a long-time Guerrero and Santo family finisher that was invented by
Eddie's father) and a heel hold. It appeared Konnan got tired and did a lot of
cheerleading. The match picked up at 11:30 with Guerrero doing an awesome plancha off
the top to the floor. Konnan used his finisher, which can be called the Niagara driver,
Splash mountain or KBT bomb, but the announcers didn't call it anything or emphasize
that Guerrero kicked out of Konnan's finishing move. Konnan hit a tope. Guerrero used
a superplex off the top for a near fall. After several more near falls, Guerrero went for a
Thesz press and upon landing, hit hit groin on Konnan's head, selling it as a low blow,
and Konnan rolled over for the pin. Finish was weak and the announcers tried to sell it
as Konnan doing it intentionally (even the next night), which if that was the idea, meant
they screwed up the finish because based on what happened, it was Guerrero who
crotched himself rather than whether Konnan overtly or accidentally did it. The negative
about doing the low blow finish was that they did about 30 low blows the rest of the
show without any leading to a pin. ***1/4
2. Belfast Bruiser (David Finlay) beat Steve Regal (Darren Matthews) via DQ in 17:33.
Tony Shiavone made a comeback on this match as he got it over as being brutal even
though a lot of what was taking place would go over the heads of many if not most
viewers. This was a super stiff All Japan impact type of match, with no hot moves, no
build or psychology and a horrible finish. It really wasn't an entertaining match, but on a
believability scale, it was more believable than almost anything you would ever see in the
U.S. short of a UFC match and it was more brutal than most of them. Not that this is a
match of the year, but it is a must-see match. The two, who have wrestled against each
other for years (in fact, Finlay is Regal's favorite opponent), just pounded the crap out of
each other. Finlay's offense was the most believable in North America. At one point
Bruiser threw a punch to Regal's nose which broke his nose and pretty well messed up
his face and he may be needing surgery. Regal was bleeding from the nose heavily when
Bobby Eaton and David Taylor interfered for the DQ. After the match, Taylor slapped
Finlay incredibly hard. ***1/4
3. Col. Parker (Robert Welch) pinned Madusa (Debra Micelli) in 3:47 in a Man vs.
Woman match. Parker was announced at 197 pounds, a weight he probably hasn't seen
since early high school. He's a lot closer to 297. For what it was, given the limitations of
Parker's character, it was entertaining although it would be impossible for the two to
have any kind of a match. Madusa couldn't even keep a straight face after her first
armdrag. Parker wound up going up for a slam, taking a few dropkicks off the ropes, and
finally went up for a german suplex. Slater kicked Madusa's leg out as she held the
bridge and Parker rolled over on her for the pin. *
4. Booty Man (Ed Leslie) pinned Diamond Dallas Page (Page Falkenburg) in what was
billed on television as an "I Quit match," but it turned out to be a regular match in which
Page would retire if he lost. Like anyone is left in the world who believes that one. Page
has lost a ton of weight. Actually the best part of the match was when Page was selling
for the invisible man outside the ring. Way too long and it got really boring. Finish saw
Page go to kiss Kimberly, who was dressed up like a ballerina in a sixth grade play and
acting like a sixth grade girl around the ring saying things like, "I want him to be my boy
friend." Kimberly slapped him, stunning Page and Booty hit a high knee which was more
like a low knee for the pin in 16:00. Booty Man than kissed Kimberly and she sold it like
it was her first kiss of her life. Even by the standards of pro wrestling, this angle is the
most unrealistic thing in the world. DUD
5. The Giant (Paul Wight) pinned Loch Ness Monster (Luke McMasters) in 2:34 with a
legdrop. Giant took one great bump, which supposedly wasn't planned. Loch Ness is the
worst, but I think this is the last we'll see of him. -*
6. Sting (Steve Borden) & Booker T (Booker Huffman) beat the Road Warriors (Joe
Laurinaitis & Mike Hegstrand) in 29:33 of a Chicago Street fight. It was pretty wild for
the first 10:00. The match fell apart in the second part as the Warriors, particularly
Animal, appeared to blow up and they all seemed to get lost. Somehow they got their
second wind because it picked up at the 20:00 mark. The match told the story that Sting
& Booker T functioned as a team since Booker T needed a win to get a tag title shot later.
It also elevated Booker T, and his brother as well, because he scored the pin over the
Road Warriors at the end and in some ways was the most impressive wrestler in the
match. Twice Sting left and went to ringside, once bringing back a chair, and once
bringing back two brooms. Finally at the 25:00 mark, Booker T left, but threw up his
hands signalling he had enough. Animal chased after him to the dressing room, and they
wound up in Lex Luger's dressing room where Luger was posing in front of a mirror.
Luger got knocked over and attacked Animal, as did both Booker T and Stevie Ray and
Jimmy Hart and Animal was handcuffed sloppily backstage. Sting and Hawk were in the
ring but Sting missed a Stinger splash. T and Hawk went at it with T runnin Hawk into
the steps. After T missed the Harlem hangover, Hawk took advantage. Ray came out and
hit Hawk with a chair and T scored the pin. The negative to the finish is that they had
used chairs previously during the match rather than protected it for the finish. ***1/2
7. Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea) & Randy Savage (Randy Poffo) beat Meng (Uliuli Fifita) &
Barbarian (Sionne Vailahi) & Ric Flair (Richard Fliehr) & Arn Anderson (Marty Lunde)
& Kevin Sullivan & Lex Luger (Larry Pfohl) & Ze Gangsta (Tom Lister) & Ultimate
Solution (Jeep Swenson) in 25:16. Hogan & Savage worked with Flair & Anderson on the
top level, and threw powder at them to go to the middle level. There they faced Sullivan,
Luger, Meng & Barbarian. They locked Meng & Barbarian in half of the middle level
cage, and then the other four wound up in the wrestling ring. Finally Jeep & Zeus, who
weren't even there at the beginning (Schiavone kept asking where Jeep, Zeus and
Pillman were, still hinting that Pillman would be there even though he wasn't, taking the
bait-and-switch well past any point of sensibility), showed up. They dragged Hogan &
Savage into the bottom level of the cage and it only got worse since they can't work.
Somewhere while all this was going on, Meng & Barbarian were let out of their cage and
simply walked backstage. Finally Sullivan, Luger, Flair and Anderson were in the bottom
cage so it was six-on-two. Jimmy Hart gave Luger a loaded black glove and he went to
hit Savage, who ducked, and then he held up, then changed his mind and KO'd Flair for
the pin. -***
The humorous backstage note on the show was that when the show started, Flair,
Heenan and Okerlund still hadn't arrived. The story is that they got lost trying to find
Tupelo from coming in at the Memphis Airport the day of the show. Usually everyone
gets in a day early for PPV events but Flair had some kind of a commitment the night
before and since he's a pro, nobody ever worries about him. That's why Lee Marshall
opened the Main Event show and when Okerlund finally appeared about 15 minutes into
the show, he had done a rushed make-up job, why Bobby Heenan wasn't in a suit (and
why at the end of the show Tony Schiavone made a crack about not to get lost wherever
they were going) and why Flair missed the first heel interview during the Main Event
show.
***********************************************************
The tentative line-up for the first post-WM WWF PPV show, the In Your House show on
4/28 from Omaha, consists of Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel, presumably for the WWF title,
Goldust vs. Ultimate Warrior, presumably for the IC title, Bodydonnas vs. Godwinns,
presumably a tag team title rematch, Vader vs. Razor Ramon (presumably Ramon
getting destroyed on the way out), Undertaker vs. ManKind (who is expected to get
involved in the Undertaker-Diesel WM match) and Savio Vega vs. Davey Boy Smith.
Diesel's contractual obligations to the WWF extend past the 5/26 In Your House PPV
shows, so I'd presume the Diesel blow-off wouldn't take place on this show and instead
they'd built up for a return blow-off match on that show. One or two of these matches
may wind up being dark matches, and if the past is any precursor, it is likely the card will
change. Nevertheless, on paper, if they air the WWF title match, the IC title match and
Vader-Ramon and if Undertaker and ManKind's angle is strong enough, this should
draw another good buy rate. By midway through the second day of ticket sales on 3/26,
the show had already sold 1,910 tickets for a $35,000 advance.
***********************************************************
Jesse Ventura (Jim Janos) prevailed for the third time in his lawsuit regarding royalties
against the World Wrestling Federation, this time on the Supreme Court level when the
court refused without comment to overturn the original decision made in a Minnesota
court.
The original court decision had awarded Ventura $809,000 in royalties and more than
$200,000 in accrued interest on the origial award on 90 WWF videotapes that he
appeared on as either a wrestler or a commentator. In addition, WWF must pay
Ventura's court costs for the two appeals and after a six-year court fight, Ventura will
finally be seeing his money in just a few weeks. The Minnesota court ruled that Ventura,
who had signed away his rights to videotape royalties in his WWF contract, had been
lied to in contract negotiations by Dick Glover of the WWF when he told his agent, Barry
Bloom, that nobody received royalties on videos unless the video had their name such as
a "Best of Roddy Piper" tape. Ventura later found out that others, such as Hulk Hogan,
Andre the Giant and Mr. T, were receiving cuts from videos that didn't bear their name.
The Minnesota Supreme Court refused to overturn the original verdict upon appeal by
the WWF.
Ventura, whose days as a wrestling announcer ended when WCW decided to pay him
rather than use him and his contract later expired, hosts a morning drive time talk show
on KSTP radio in Minneapolis, and will be airing in an episode of "X-Files" in a few

weeks.
***********************************************************
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first on option seven for those calling just for that information, then break the show
down into a detailed review. Besides myself, reports are done by Ron Lemieux
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We will be doing Observer readership polls in April for both the Pancrase and EFC PPV
shows along with the two WWF shows.
MAJOR EVENTS WRESTLING CALENDAR 3/29 TO 4/29
3/29 AAA Tijuana Palenque (Konnan & Octagon & Parka vs. Metal & Pierroth &
Cibernetico)
3/30 ECW Philadelphia ECW Arena (Raven & Bruise Brothers vs. Dreamer & Sandman
& Douglas)
3/31 WWF WrestleMania XII PPV Anaheim, CA Arrowhead Pond (Bret Hart vs.
Michaels)
3/31 All Japan Nagoya Aiichi Gym (Misawa vs. Kobashi)
3/31 All Japan Women Yokohama Arena (Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue)
4/1 WWF Monday Night Raw tapings San Bernardino, CA Orange Pavilion
4/1 WCW Monday Nitro tapings Cleveland State University Convocation Center
4/1 All Japan Osaka Furitsu Gym (Misawa vs. Taue)
4/2 WWF Superstars tapings San Diego Sports Arena
4/4 All Japan Nagasaki (Kawada vs. Hansen)
4/7 JWP Yokohama Bunka Gym (Kansai & Takako Inoue vs. Ozaki & Kyoko Inoue)
4/7 All Japan Fukuoka Hakata Star Lanes (Kawada vs. Kobashi)
4/8 All Japan Hiroshima Sun Plaza Arena (Kawada vs. Williams)
4/10 All Japan Kyoto KBS Hall (Kobashi vs. Williams)
4/13 Pancrase PPV (taped 1/28 Yokohama Bunka Gym--Suzuki vs. Frank Shamrock)
4/13 ECW Queens, NY Lost Battalion Hall
4/14 All Japan Sendai Miyagi Sports Center (Misawa vs. Kawada)
4/15 WCW Monday Nitro tapings Charleston, WV Civic Center
4/19 UWFI/New Japan Osaka Furitsu Gym (Takada & Kanehara vs. Choshu & Sasaki)
4/19 WAR Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center (Tenryu vs. Pogo)
4/20 All Japan Tokyo Budokan Hall (Champion Carnival tournament finals)
4/20 ECW Philadelphia ECW Arena
4/22 WCW Monday Nitro taping Albany, GA Civic Center
4/26 Extreme Fighting Championships II PPV Montreal, QUE?
4/26 RINGS Osaka Furitsu Gym
4/28 WWF In Your House PPV Omaha, NE Civic Center
4/29 New Japan Tokyo Dome (Takada vs. Hashimoto)
4/29 FMW Osaka Maishima Arena
4/29 WWF Monday Night Raw tapings Des Moines, IA
4/29 WCW Monday Nitro tapings Palmetto, FL Manatee Civic Center
RESULTS
3/15 Nezahualcoyotl (AAA - 3,000 sellout): Los Villanos & Karis la Momia b
Mascara Sagrada Jr. & Halcon Dorado Jr. & Tinieblas Jr. & Blue Demon Jr.-DQ, Hair vs.
hair: Mr. Condor b Bronco, Pierroth Jr. & Cien Caras & Heavy Metal b Konnan & Ultimo
Dragon & Mascara Sagrada
3/15 Smithville, TN (Hardcore Championship Wrestling): TNT b Franklin
Money & Buddy Savage, Larry Valentine d Ashley Hudson, Krull the Deathstalker b Dale
Storm, Prozac Jac & Tony Falk b Steven Dunn & Troy Eaton, Eaton won Rumble
3/18 Nagahama (New Japan - 1,500): Tatsuhito Takaiwa b Tokimitsu Ishizawa,
Akitoshi Saito b Yuji Nagata, Michiyoshi Ohara & Kuniaki Kobayashi b Shinjiro Otani &
Osamu Nishimura, Jushin Liger & El Samurai b Black Cat & Wild Pegasus, Harlem Heat
b Kensuke Sasaki & Tadao Yasuda, Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Hiro Saito b
Osamu Kido & Takashi Iizuka & Kazuo Yamazaki, Scott Norton & Hugh Morrus b Masa
Saito & Shinya Hashimoto, Akira Nogami & Tatsutoshi Goto & Shiro Koshinaka b Keiji
Muto & Satoshi Kojima & Junji Hirata
3/18 Memphis (USWA): Reggie B. Fine b Spellbinder, Brandon Baxter DCOR Scott
Bowden, Jesse James Armstrong b Koko Ware-DQ, USWA tag titles: Tommy Rich &
Doug Gilbert b Head Bangers, Fine won elimination mathc, Brian Christopher & Isaac
Yankem b Men on a Mission, Unified title: Jerry Lawler b ManKind
3/18 Kushiro (FMW): Combat Toyoda b Kaori Nakayama, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga &
Hido b Nanjyo Hayato & Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Horace Boulder b Hideki Hosaka,
Katsutoshi Niiyama & Koji Nakagawa b Jason the Terrible & Wing Kanemura, Shark
Tsuchiya & Crusher Maedomari & Miwa Sato b Megumi Kudo & Aki Kanbayashi &
Yukari Ishikura, Super Leather b Yoshi Kwan, Head Hunter A & Mr. Pogo b Ricky Fuji &
Masato Tanaka
3/18 Kamoya (All Japan women - 1,230): Mina Taniyama b Mari Mogami, Yoshiko
Tamura b Yuka Shiina, Chaparita Asari & Yumi Fukawa b Misae Watanabe & Nobue
Endo, Toshiyo Yamada & Takako Inoue & Kumiko Maekawa b Reggie Bennett & Kaoru
Ito & Mariko Yoshida, Aja Kong b Etsuko Mita, Yumiko Hotta & Tomoko Watanabe b
Manami Toyota & Sakie Hasegawa
3/19 Yokohama Bunka Gym (Big Japan Pro Wrestling Anniversary show):
Masahiko Kochi b Satoru Shiga, Takeshi Ono b Satoshi Yoneyama, Aquarias b Unicorn,
Seiji Yamakawa & Yuichi Taniguchi b Yusuke Kobayashi & Crusher Takahashi, Toshie
Sato & Toshie Uematsu b Chikayo Nagashima & Meiko Satomura, Bruiser Okamoto &
Yoshiaki Yatsu b Dances with Dudley (ECW) & Bull Pain, Sabu b Jason Knight, No time
limit street fight barbed wire board match: Shoji Nakamaki & Mr. Pogo b Shinya Kojika
& Kendo Nagasaki
3/19 Toyohashi (WAR - 1,200): Damian b Takashi Okamaura, Masayoshi Motegi b
Battle Ranger, Lance Storm b Masaaki Mochizuki, Ultimo Dragon & Yuji Yasuraoka b
Gedo & Lion Do (Chris Jericho), Big Titan & Dr. Luther (Len St. Clair) b Osamu Taitoko
& Arashi, Koki Kitahara & Nobutaka Araya b Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado 20:35
3/19 Hiraizumi (Michinoku Pro - 218): Wellington Wilkens Jr. NC Yone Gejin,
Aero Flash & Pantera b Gran Naniwa & Super Delfin, Shiryu & Mens Tao & Dick Togo b
Naohiro Hoshikawa & Tiger Mask & Gran Hamada
3/20 Nagoya Aiichi Gym (New Japan - 11,000 sellout): Black Cat b Yutaka
Yoshie, Akitoshi Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto & Kengo Kimura b Tokimitsu Ishizawa & Yuji
Nagata & Osamu Kido, Jushin Liger & El Samurai b Koji Kanemoto & Tatsuhito
Takaiwa, Hiroyoshi Tenzan b Osamu Nishimura, Kazuo Yamazaki b Masa Chono, Scott
Norton & Hugh Morrus b Tadao Yasuda & Keiji Muto, WCW cruiserweight title deciding
match: Shinjiro Otani b Wild Pegasus to win title, IWGP tag titles: Shinya Hashimoto &
Junji Hirata b Harlem Heat, Satoshi Kojima & Takashi Iizuka & Kensuke Sasaki & Riki
Choshu b Michiyoshi Ohara & Akira Nogami & Kuniaki Kobayashi & Shiro Koshinaka
3/20 Augusta, GA (WCW Saturday Night tapings - 4,400/2,300 paid): Nonsquash results: Ric Flair b Craig Pittman, WCW TV title: Lex Luger b Brad Armstrong,
Eddie Guerrero b Steve Doll, Sting b Bobby Eaton-DQ, Public Enemy b Road WarriorsDQ, Shark b Pez Whatley, Sting b The Giant-COR
3/20 Hakata (All Japan women - 2,450): Misae Watanabe b Mari Mogami, Mariko
Yoshida & Kaoru Ito & Yumi Fukawa b Etsuko Mita & Chaparita Asari & Kumiko
Maekawa, Aja Kong & Yuka Shiina & Mina Taniyama b Takako Inoue & Nobue Endo &
Yoshiko Tamura, Reggie Bennett & Tomoko Watanabe b Toshiyo Yamada & Yumiko
Hotta, Manami Toyota b Sakie Hasegawa 31:33
3/20 Niigata (FMW): Combat Toyoda b Yukari Ishikura, Horace Boulder b Yoshi
Kwan, Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Katsutoshi Niiyama b Nanjyo Hayato & Koji Nakagawa,
Shark Tsuchiya & Crusher Maedomari & Miwa Sato b Aki Kanbayashi & Kaori
Nakayama & Megumi Kudo, Jason the Terrible & Super Leather b Ricky Fuji & Masato
Tanaka, Shoji Nakamaki & Head Hunter A & Mr. Pogo b Wing Kanemura & Hido &
Hideki Hosaka
3/20 Shingu (WAR): Osamu Taitoko b Damian, Ultimo Dragon b Takashi Okumura,
Jado b Masaaki Mochizuki, Gedo b Yuji Yasuroka, Hiromichi Fuyuki b Nobutaka Araya,
Koki Kitahara & Arashi b Dr. Luther & Big Titan
3/20 Inagawa (Michinoku Pro - 255): Aero Flash b Masato Yakushiji, Tiger Mask b
Naohiro Hoshikawa, Dick Togo & Mens Tao & Shiryu b Taka Michinoku & Gran Naniwa
& Shoichi Funaki
3/20 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Wrestle Dream Factory): One-night tag team
tournament: Masayoshi Motegi & Shinichi Shino b Azteca & Soldier, Silver King & El
Texano b Shinigami & Hirofumi Miura, Shinichi Nakano & Fukuda b Wolf & ?,
Kamikaze & Super Crazy b Tsubo Genjin & Onryo, King & Texano b Motegi & Shino,
Kamikaze & Crazy b Nakano & Fukuda, Kamikaze & Crazy b King & Texano to win
tournament
3/21 Chichibu (New Japan - 1,350 sellout): Shinjiro Otani b Yutaka Yoshie, Black
Cat b Tatsuhito Takaiwa, El Samurai b Tokimitsu Ishizawa, Akitoshi Saito & Akira
Nogami & Tatsutoshi Goto b Yuji Nagata & Jushin Liger & Takashi Iizuka, Harlem Heat
b Kuniaki Kobayashi & Kengo Kimura, Takaiwa won Battle Royal, Hiro Saito &
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Masa Chono b Kensuke Sasaki & Koji Kanemoto & Tadao Yasuda,
Shiro Koshinaka & Michiyoshi Ohara b Keiji Muto & Osamu Nishimura, Scott Norton &
Hugh Morrus & Wild Pegasus b Shinya Hashimoto & Junji Hirata & Satoshi Kojima
3/21 Owashi (WAR): Lance Storm b Battle Ranger, Ultimo Dragon b Masayoshi
Motegi, Osamu Taitoko & Koki Kitahara b Takashi Okamura & Masaaki Mochizuki, Lion
Heart b Yuji Yasuraoka, Nobutaka Araya b Arashi, Gedo & Jado & Hiromichi Fuyuki b
Damian & Dr. Luther & Big Titan
3/21 Turuoaka (FMW): Tetsuhiro Kuroda b Nanjyo Hayato, Combat Toyoda b Aki
Kanbayashi, Jaosn the Terrible b Yoshi Kwan, Miwa Sato & Crusher Maedomari & Shark
Tsuchiya b Kaori Nakayama & Yukari Ishikura & Megumi Kudo, Super Leather b Koji
Nakagawa, Street fight: Head Hunter A & Mr. Pogo b Ricky Fuji & Horace Boulder,
Barbed wire death match: Hideki Hosaka & Hido & Wing Kanemura b Kuroda &
Katsutoshi Niiyama & Masato Tanaka
3/21 Namioka (Michinoku Pro - 402 sellout): Pantera b Masato Yakushiji, Aero
Flash b Naohiro Hoshikawa, Tiger Mask & Gran Hamada b Shoichi Funaki & Taka
Michinoku, Shiryu & Mens Tao & Dick Togo b Gran Naniwa & Super Delfin & Yone
Genjin
3/21 Hamamatsu (Big Japan Pro Wrestling): Shumme Matsuzaki b Satoru Shiga,
Ichiro Yaguchi b Yosuke Kobayashi, Takeshi Ono b Satoshi Yoneyama, Yuichi Taniguchi
& Aquarias b Unicorn & Crusher Takahashi, Bruiser Okamoto b Masahiko Kochi,
Yoshiaki Yatsu b Bull Pain, Sabu b Dances with Dudley, Thumb tacks street fight death
match: Jason Knight & Shoji Nakamaki b Seiji Yamakawa & Kendo Nagasaki
3/21 Takayama (All Japan women - 1,620): Mari Mogami b Kayo Noumi, Mina
Taniyama b Misae Watanabe, Nobue Endo & Yuka Shiina b Yumi Fukawa & Yoshiko
Tamura, Reggie Bennett & Kaoru Ito & Sakie Hasegawa b Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue
& Kumiko Maekawa, Etsuko Mita b Toshiyo Yamada, Aja Kong & Chaparita Asari b
Mariko Yoshida & Manami Toyota
3/21 Bakersfield, CA (Slammers): Dynamite D b Jesus Zapata, Buddy West b
Jimmie Jaimes, Hombre de Oro DCOR Tyrone Little, Jeff Lindberg b Bruce BeaudineDQ
3/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (All Japan - 2,100 sellout): Tsuyoshi Kikuchi b
Kentaro Shiga, Yoshinari Ogawa b Maunukea Mossman, Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura &
Mitsuo Momota b Mighty Inoue & Haruka Eigen & Masa Fuchi, Jun Akiyama b Takao
Omori, Stan Hansen b Tamon Honda, Toshiaki Kawada & Ryukaku Izumida b
Mitsuharu Misawa & Satoru Asako, Steve Williams & Johnny Ace & The Patriot b Dan
Kroffat & Doug Furnas & Gary Albright, Akira Taue d Kenta Kobashi 30:00
3/22 Hitachi (New Japan - 1,800): Yuji Nagata b Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Black Cat b
Yutaka Yoshie, Tokimitsu Ishizawa & Shinjiro Otani b Jushin Liger & El Samurai, Kengo
Kimura b Hiro Saito, Akitoshi Saito & Michiyoshi Ohara & Kuniaki Kobayashi b Koji
Kanemoto & Osamu Nishimura & Satoshi Kojima, Kensuke Sasaki & Keiji Muto & Tadao
Yasuda b Scott Norton & Hugh Morrus & Wild Pegasus, Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi
Tenzan b Harlem Heat, Shiro Koshinaka & Tatsutoshi Goto & Akira Nogami b Shinya
Hashimoto & Junji Hirata & Takashi Iizuka
3/22 Morioka (FMW): Combat Toyoda b Yukari Ishikura, Ricky Fuji & Yoshi Kwan b
Nanjyo Hayato & Koji Nakagawa, Hideki Hosaka & Hido b Tetsuhiro Kuroda &
Katsutoshi Niiyama, Miwa Sato & Shark Tsuchiya b Aki Kanbayashi & Megumi Kudo,
Street fight: Head Hunter A b Jason the Terrible, Barbed wire street fight: Wing
Kanemura & Super Leather b Horace Boulder & Masato Tanaka
3/22 Hamamatsu (WAR): Battle Ranger b Damian, Lance Storm b Masaaki
Mochizuki, Masayoshi Motegi b Shigeo Okamura, Yuji Yasuroaka b Lion Heart, Big
Titan & Dr. Luther b Ultimo Dragon & Osamu Taitoko, WAR 6 man titles: Gedo & Jado
& Hiromichi Fuyuki b Nobutaka Araya & Arashi & Koki Kitahara 25:30
3/22 Kasugai (All Japan women - 1,680): Kayo Noumi b Yoshiko Tamura, Mari
Mogami b Yumi Fukawa, Nobue Endo & Mina Taniyama b Misae Watanabe & Yuka
Shiina, Manami Toyota & Mariko Yoshida & Kaoru Ito b Chaparita Asari & Tomoko
Watanabe & Toshiyo Yamada, Reggie Bennett b Sakie Hasegawa, Etsuko Mita & Yumiko
Hotta b Kumiko Maekawa & Aja Kong
3/22 Nagoya (Big Japan Pro Wrestling): Ichiro Yaguchi & Yosuke Kobayashi b
Masahiko Kochi & Shumme Matsuzaki, Takeshi Ono b Satoshi Yoneyama, Yuichi
Taniguchi b Satoru Shiga, Jason Knight & Unicorn b Aquarias & Crusher Takahashi,
Yoshiaki Yatsu b Bruiser Okamoto, Sabu b Bull Pain, No rope barbed wire death match:
Shoji Nakamaki & Dances with Dudley b Seiji Yamakaa & Kendo Nagasaki
3/22 Shikima (Michinoku Pro - 175): Taka Michinoku b Masato Yakushiji,
Wellington Wilkens Jr. NC Yone Genjin, Aero Flash & Pantera b Gran Naniwa & Super
Delfin, Dick Togo & Mens Tao & Shiryu b Naohiro Hoshikawa & Tiger Mask & Gran
Hamada
3/22 Yamagata (Tokyo Pro Wrestling): Akihiko Masuda b Toryu, Keizo Matsuda &
Keisuke Yamada b Rikio Ito & Shigeo Okumura, Garuda & Gekko b Shocker & Astro Jr.,
Takashi Ishikawa & Yoji Anjoh b Masanobu Kurisu & Isamu Teranishi, Hiroshi Itakura
& Masashi Aoyagi b Eddie Jackie & ? Howard, Mr. Pogo b Kishin Kawabata, Itakura &
Aoyagi b Matsuda & Yamada, Tenichibo Ikkei & Daikokubo Benkei & Great Kabuki b
Bloody Bruise A & B & Masked Pro #1, Anjoh & Ishikawa b Gekko & Garuda
3/22 Minami Ashikaga (JWP): Saburo & Fusayo Nouchi b Hiromi Sugo & Candy
Okutsu, Hikari Fukuoka b Hiromi Yagi, Yuki Miyazaki & Cutie Suzuki & Devil Masami b
Tomoko Kuzumi & Boirshoi Kid & Dynamite Kansai
3/22 Mexico City Arena Mexico (EMLL): Mascara Magica & Humberto Garza &
Bronco b Arkangel & Chicago Experss & Scorpio Jr., Elimination match for Salvador
Lutteroth Cup: Atlantis & El Hijo del Santo & Lizmark & Dandy b Felino & Negro Casas
& Blue Panther & Dr. Wagner Jr., CMLL trios titles: Dos Caras & La Fiera & Hector
Garza b Emilio Charles Jr. & Bestia Salvaje & Sangre Chicana to win titles, Hair vs. hair:
Rambo b El Brazo
3/22 Leighton, PA (International Pro Wrestling - 725): Bad Crew b Dino
Casanova & Romeo Valentino, Tiny the Terrible b Half Nelson, Doug Flex b General
Mayhem, Reckless Youth b Dave Keller, Brick Bronsky b Frank Staletto, Public Enemy b
Chaos Inc., Bam Bam Bigelow NC 911
3/22 Lindenhurst, NY (Universal Superstars of America): Cousin Luke b
Bulldog Mack, Duke Snider (wouldn't he a bit old to be wrestling?) b Mangler, Typhoon
DCOR Sonny Beach, Bodyguard for Hire b Christopher Michaels-DQ, Lumberjack
match: Brutus Beefcake b Greg Valentine, East Village Riot Squad b Tony Rambo &
Mike Norman
3/22 Bellingham, MA (IWF - 750 sellout): Brian Walsh b Chris Duffy, Bulldozer b
James Cody, Tim McNeany won triangular match over Mike Hollow & Russian Mauler,
Snooky Fink b Eugene, Smooth Operator b Antoine Roy-DQ, Doink the Clown (Ray
Apollo) b Bob Backlund
3/22 East Rutherford, NJ (Eastern Wrestling Alliance): Damien Stone b A.J.
Steele, Bam Bam Bigelow b Jim Neidhart, Ace Darling & Johnny Handsome b Steve
Corino & Inferno Kid, Johnny Gunn b Mike Kaluha, Tommy Cairo b Keith Schera,
Corino b Glenn Osbourne, Jim Powers b Devon Storm
3/22 Aptos, CA (Pacific Coast Sports - 400): Matt Hyson won Battle Royal, Boom
Boom Comini b Jason Clay, Rick Turner b Frank Dalton-DQ, Joe Applebaumer b Chris
Cole, Cowboy Lang b Lil Nasty Boy, Michael Modest & Demon Seed & Steve Rizzono b
Mike Diamond & Hyson & Robert Thompson
3/22 Rossville, GA (TWA): Risk Taylor b Michael Collins, Chuck Colt b Dragon
Master, Keith Hart b Outpatient, Jimmy Sharpe & Tracy Black b Mr. Pain & Frankie Lee,
Roger Sartain & Joel Travis & Mad Jack b Doug & Randy & Terry Watkins
3/22 Gallatin, TN (Ind - 175): Tim Prichard b Kid Sensation, Steve Morton b
Mountain Man, Steve Neely & Shane Morton b Strickly Business, Giant Scorpion b Rod
Higgs, Kevin the Thumper & Ashley Hudson b Tony Falk & Quentain Cobain
3/22 Huntington, WV (Nationwide Championship Wrestling - 700): Dan
Cooley b Frank Parker, Mad Dog Davidson b Lady Killer, Wonderer b Maniac, Super
Mario b Roger Anderson, Jimmy Valiant & John Studd Jr. (no relation) b Psycho &
Tommy Gibson, Nikolai Volkoff b Mike Sharpe, L.A. Wild One & Gambler (WCW) b Bart
& Brad Batten, Bunkhouse Buck & Dick Slater b Ricky Morton & Pez Whatley
3/23 Sendai (UWFI/New Japan - 4,500): Kiyoshi Tamura b Kazushi Sakuraba,
Yoshihiro Takayama b Tatsuo Nakano, Kengo Kimura b Hiromitsu Kanehara, Masahito
Kakihara b Akitoshi Saito, Akira Nogami & Kuniaki Kobayashi b Kenichi Yamamoto &
Yoji Anjoh, Nobuhiko Takada & Naoki Sano b Shiro Koshinaka & Michiyoshi Ohara
3/23 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (All Japan - 2,100 sellout): Maunukea Mossman b
Kentaro Shiga, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi b Ryukaku Izumida, Mighty Inoue & Haruka Eigen &
Masa Fuchi b Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota & Masao Inoue, Gary Albright b Tamon
Honda, Akira Taue & Takao Omori b Kenta Kobashi & Satoru Asako 20:02, Giant Baba
& Stan Hansen b Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas, Steve Williams b Jun Akiyama, Toshiaki
Kawada b The Patriot, Mitsuharu Misawa d Johnny Ace 30:00
3/23 Sawara (New Japan - 1,500): Tokimitsu Ishizawa b Shinjiro Otani, El Samurai
b Black Cat, Osamu Kido b Tadao Yasuda, Jushin Liger & Wild Pegasus b Koji Kanemoto
& Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Kensuke Sasaki & Osamu Nishimura b Yuji Nagata & Takashi
Iizuka, Scott Norton & Hugh Morrus b Satoshi Kojima & Shinya Hashimoto, Riki
Choshu & Keiji Muto & Junji Hirata b Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Hiro Saito
3/23 Senmaya (FMW): Combat Toyoda b Kaori Nakayama, Horace Boulder & Yoshi
Kwan b Nanjyo Hayato & Katsutoshi Niiyama, Super Leather b Ricky Fuji, Miwa Sato &
Shark Tsuchiya & Crusher Maedomari b Aki Kanbayashi & Yukari Ishikura & Megumi
Kudo, Head Hunter A b Hideki Hosaka, Street fight: Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Koji Nakagawa
& Masato Tanaka b Hido & Jason the Terrible & Wing Kanemura
3/23 Fukushima (Michinoku Pro - 720 sellout): Shiryu b Great Sasuke, Aero
Flash & Pantera b Naohiro Hoshikawa & Masato Yakushiji, Yone Genjin NC Wellington
Wilkens Jr., Tiger Mask & Naohiro Hoshikawa b Taka Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki,
Mens Tao & Dick Togo b Super Delfin & Gran Naniwa
3/23 Tohoku (Tokyo Pro Wrestling - 287): Akihiko Masuda d Masked Pro #1,
Bloody Bruise A & B b Eddie Jackie & ? Howard, Astro Jr. & Shocker b Gekko & Garuda,
Mr. Pogo b Shigeo Okumura, Kishin Kawabata & Masashi Aoyagi & Takashi Ishikawa b
Tenichibo Ikkei & Great Kabuki & Daikokubo Benkei
3/23 Mihara (Gaea): Sonoka Kato b Nakano, Chikayo Nagashima b Toshie Sato,
Meiko Satomura & Toshie Uematsu b Makie Numao & Kaoru, Chigusa Nagayo b Bomber
Hikari
3/23 Kazama (JWP): Hiromi Yagi & Candy Okutsu b Fusayo Nouchi & Boirshoi Kid,
Mayumi Ozaki b Yuki Miyazaki, Dynamite Kansai & Yagi & Tomoko Kuzumi & Rieko
Amano b Devil Masami & Cutie Suzuki & Kanako Mototani & Hiromi Sugo
3/23 Durban, South Africa (All-Star Wrestling): Nelson Daidoo b Blue Boer,
Dusty Wolfe b Hammer, Outlaw b Johan Vogues, Danie Vogues DCOR Viking, Giant
Warrior & Vladimir Koloff b Gama Singh & Danie Brits
3/23 Summersville, WV (Nationwide Championship Wrestling - 600): Roger
Anderson b Maniac, Super Mario b Lady Killer, Jimmy Valiant & John Studd Jr. b Frank
Parker & Gambler, L.A. Wild One b Mad Dog Davidson, Nikolai Volkoff b Mike Sharpe,
Dick Slater & Bunkhouse Buck b Pez Whatley & Dan Cooley
3/23 Salisbury Beach, MA (Century Wrestling Alliance): Paul Zine b Mike Lano,
Blue Angel NC Omega, Buddha b Nightmare, Dungeon Master b Johnny Angel, Joel
Davis b Pink Assassin-DQ, Knuckles Nelson NC Vic Steamboat
3/23 Franklin, MA (IWF - 150): Arctic Angel b Jerome Gunn, Jamie West b Violet
Flame-COR, Bulldozer b Russian Mauler, El Mascarado (Bert Senteno) b Freight Train,
Smooth Operator DCOR Antoine Roy, Tim McNeany b Pierre the Mountie (Storm
Trooper, not Pierre Oulette)
3/23 Philadelphia (Tri County Wrestling - 125): Chubby Dudley DCOR H.W.
Star, Cool Kid Ice b Otter, Bo Steel b Dirty Dan, Kamikaze (Bill Reil) b Insomniac, Battle
Star b Rafael Barrio, Lost Boys b Twiggy Ramirez & ?, Steve Corino b Abdul Ahad,
Reckless Youth d Dave Keller, Pat Shamrock & Don Motoya DDQ Abbuda Singh &
Neptarama
3/23 Brighton, TN (American Wrestling Alliance - 315): Brian Collins b Blade
Boudreau, Storm Trooper b Chris Gray-DQ, Charlie Laird b Todd Duff-DQ, Boudreau b
Derrick King-DQ, Blackjack Daniels & Bad News b Tim White & Rebel Connection,
David Denton b Danny B. Goode
3/23 Gore, GA (North Georgia Wrestling Alliance): Deno Stone b Mike Golden,
Kid Ego b Adriono Santino, Bubba Humphreys & Stone b Ken & John Arden, Mark Pain
b Dakota Outlaw, John Arden won Royal Rumble
3/23 Kings Mountain, NC (North American Wrestling Alliance - 134):

Flaming Youth (James Kluntz) d Scotty Hot Body (Scott Bradley), Jeff Viktory (Greg
Bolick) b Kevin Kirby, Mad Dog (David Lynch) b Jake Mulligan (Terry Randall)-COR,
Krazy Kane (Chad Byrd) b Home Boy (Mike Wray), American G.I. (Rich Scruggs) &
Dozer (J.R. Scruggs) b Hunter Thompson & Rick Starr, Viktory b Kane
3/24 Toda (All Japan - 2,700 sellout): Tsuyoshi Kikuchi b Masao Inoue, Kentaro
Shiga & Yoshinari Ogawa b Muanukea Mossman & Ryukaku Izumida, The Patriot b
Takao Omori, Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota b Haruka Eigen & Masa
Fuchi & Mighty Inoue, Kenta Kobashi b Jun Akiyama, Stan Hansen b Johnny Ace, Steve
Williams b Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Tamon Honda b Gary
Albright & Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas
3/24 Fukui (WAR - 2,100): Osamu Taitoko b Takashi Okamura, Lance Storm b
Masaaki Mochizuki, Lion Heart b Masayoshi Motegi, Arashi b Dr. Luther, Nobutaka
Araya & Koki Kitahara b Big Titan & Damian, Jado & Gedo & Hiromichi Fuyuki b
Genichiro Tenryu & Ultimo Dragon & Yuji Yasuroka
3/24 Murata (FMW): Nanjyo Hayato b Hideki Hosaka, Megumi Kudo b Yukari
Ishikura, Jason the Terrible b Ricky Fuji, Yoshi Kwan & Horace Boulder b Tetsuhiro
Kuroda & Katsutoshi Niiyama, Miwa Sato & Shark Tsuchiya & Crusher Maedomari b Aki
Kanbayashi & Kaori Nakayama & Combat Toyoda, Head Hunter A b Hido, Barbed wire
match: Super Leather & Wing Kanemura b Masato Tanaka & Koji Nakagawa
3/24 Shirakawa (Michinoku Pro - 383): Naohiro Hoshikawa b Masato Yakushiji,
Yone Genjin NC Wellington Wilkens Jr., Shiryu & Dick Togo b Shoichi Funaki & Taka
Michinoku, Gran Hamada b Mens Tao-DQ, Tiger Mask & Pantera b Super Delfin & Gran
Naniwa, WWF lt. hwt title: Great Sasuke b Aero Flash to win title
3/24 Hofu (Gaea): Nakano & Makie Numao b Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima,
Kanako Mototani & Tomoko Kuzumi b Toshie Sato & Toshie Uematsu, Chigusa Nagayo
b Sonoka Kato, Bomber Hikari & Devil Masami b Kaoru & Boirshoi Kid
3/24 Kurikoma (All Japan women - 1,270): Mari Mogami b Kayo Noumi, Misae
Watanabe b Yumi Fukawa, Yoshiko Tamura & Yuka Shiina & Kaoru Ito b Mina
Taniyama & Nobue Endo & Kyoko Inoue, Mariko Yoshida b Kumiko Maekawa, Reggie
Bennett & Tomoko Watanabe & Toshiyo Yamada b Takako Inoue & Etsuko Mita & Aja
Kong, Manami Toyota & Sakie Hasegawa b Chaparita Asari & Yumiko Hotta
3/24 Aizu Wakamatsu (Tokyo Pro Wrestling - 720): ? Howard b Bloody Bruise
B, Bloody Bruise A b Eddie Jackie, Gekko & Akihiko Masuda b Astro Jr. & Shocker,
Daikokubo Benkei b Kishin Kawabata, Shigeo Okumura & Masked Pro #1 & Garuda b
Tenichibo Ikkei & Benkei & Great Kabuki, Masashi Aoyagi & Takashi Ishikawa b Toryu
& Mr. Pogo
3/25 Niigata (RINGS - 3,128): Gregori Bekichev b Krastev, Wataru Sakata b
Heizman, Mitsuya Nagai b Eruhim Micha, Tsuyoshi Kousaka b Hans Nyman, Volk Han
b Dick Vrij, Yoshihisa Yamamoto b Bitsaze Tariel
3/26 Tokyo Gymnasium (New Japan - 10,305): One-night tag team tournament:
Junji Hirata & Shinya Hashimoto b Hugh Morrus & Scott Norton, Keiji Muto & Kensuke
Sasaki b Yoshihiro Takayama & Yoji Anjoh, Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan b Riki
Choshu & Satoshi Kojima, Tatsumi Fujinami & Shiro Koshinaka b Genichiro Tenryu &
Nobutaka Araya, Non-tourney: Jushin Liger & Wild Pegasus b Koji Kanemoto & Shinjiro
Otani, Muto & Sasaki b Hashimoto & Hirata, Fujinami & Koshinaka b Chono & Tenzan,
Young Lions tournament championship match: Tokimitsu Ishizawa b Yuji Nagata,
Tournament final: Fujinami & Koshinaka b Muto & Sasaki
3/26 Suwa (All Japan - 2,350): Mighty Inoue b Masao Inoue, Yoshinari Ogawa b
Maunkea Mossman, Ryukaku Izumida & Haruka Eigen & Masa Fuchi b Giant Baba &
Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota, Johnny Ace b Takao Omori, Gary Albright b Patriot,
Kenta Kobashi & Satoru Asako b Toshiaki Kawada & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi 20:46, Akira
Taue d Steve Williams 30:00, Stan Hansen & Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas b Mitsuharu
Misawa & Jun Akiyama & Tamon Honda
Special thanks to: Mark Taylor, Derek Benesch, Scott Hudson, Steve Prazak, Bruce
Buchanan, Gregg John, Robert Rothaas, Peggy Watkins, Marcus Watkins, Ronnie
Crowder, Sarah Moore, Chuck Langermann, David Millican, Ken Doucet, Dominick
Valenti, Dan Parris, Timothy Walker, Rich Palladino, Jesse Money, Scott Russell
JAPANESE TELEVISION RUNDOWN
2/18 ALL JAPAN: 1. Misawa & Kobashi & Honda beat Hansen & Albright & Rob Van
Dam when Honda pinned Van Dam with a head-butt off the top rope. First half was
nothing. It did improve but was still well below what you'd expect. Van Dam did a
moonsault block off the guard rail onto Honda. The match was at its best when Albright
was in. Van Dam is good in spots but some of his kicks look bad. **1/4
2/25 ALL JAPAN: 1. Akiyama & Mossman beat Kawada & Shiga in 21:00. Kawada and
Akiyama were great. Mossman and Shiga are different from most Americans of similar
experience in that they don't make mistakes in the ring, but they also don't do a lot of
acrobatic or high degree of difficulty moves. After several near falls, Mossman pinned
Shiga with a splash off the top. Mossman's work was solid, but unspectacular. Shiga,
since he's so small, looks to become another Kikuchi type as he gains more experience.
***1/4; 2. Ace & Patriot beat Omori & Taue when Patriot pinned Omori with a full
nelson drop. *3/4; 3. Kawada & Taue captured the tag titles from Hansen & Albright.
The last 5:00 of the match aired. Even in that form the match was nothing special. The
finish was good ending with Taue pinning Hansen with a choke slam. **1/4
3/9 NEW JAPAN: 1. Hashimoto & Hirata retained the IWGP tag titles beating Anjoh &
Takayama in 12:13 when Hashimoto made Takayama submit to the armbreaker. Match
was really good because it was stiff and came off like a fight with a ton of heat. Even
though Takayama is terrible, they beat on him so hard it didn't hurt it much. ***1/2; 2.
Muto & Liger beat Takada & Sano when Liger pinned Sano after a Liger bomb. Sano was
in almost the entire second half of the match, and since all the heat is with Takada, it
made it a disappointment. Takada kept not making saves as the storyline because in his
promotion they don't do saves, but finally at the end he came in for a save and Muto got
him in the figure four while Liger planted Sano for the pin. **3/4
3/10 ALL JAPAN: 1. Kawada & Taue beat Akiyama & Kobashi in 20:40. This was a
fantastic match with is being ultra-stiff with tremendous psychology. Not a ton of hot
moves as compared with the best All Japan matches, but the match incorporated a lot of
different styles and had a great believablity factor. The focal point of the match was
Akiyama, who looked the best of the four as it was designed since he was doing the job at
the end and he's the one they are looking at elevating to the top level. Kobashi looked
like he was making sure not to steal the spotlight since this was Akiyama's big match at
Budokan with the big boys. Taue wound up pinning Akiyama after two Dynamic bombs
(Liger bombs). The best All Japan TV match thus far in the year. ****1/2
3/16 NEW JAPAN: 1. Otani pinned Takaiwa in 10:31 with a dragon suplex in the
Young Lions tournament. Takaiwa is another solid underneath wrestler. Otani was
awesome as usual. A damn good match with great heat and psychology. ***3/4; 2. Muto
& Sasaki beat Norton & Hugh Morrus in 8:51 when Muto pinned Morrus after a
moonsault but with Morrus so far from the corner it was basically a moonsault double
kneedrop. Norton is a lot smaller than one year ago, probably due to the major arm
injury not allowing him to lift as heavy. Morrus was impressive for a New Japan
newcomer as he's got both size and agility and a character. ***1/4; 3. Choshu & Iizuka &
Hirata beat Koshinaka & Kobayashi & Nogami in 10:45 when Iizuka pinned Kobayashi
with a Northern Lights suplex. Iizuka juiced from being ran into the unprotected
turnbuckle by Nogami, who was his long-time tag partner. ***; 4. Chono & Tenzan beat
Kido & Yamazaki in 12:43 when Chono pinned Kido after a Yakuza kick. Chono &
Tenzan are a great heel team when it comes to carrying a match. Yamazaki worked most
of the way and since he mainly does kicks and they went so long, his offense became
repetitive. Kido messed up a spot at the finish. It was watchable but it would have been
better if it was shorter. **1/2
3/17 ALL JAPAN: 1. Ogawa pinned Kikuchi in 19:32 to retain the PWF jr. title. This
was a very good match with the fans popping for the near falls at the end. The only
negative was that Kikuchi used the sleeper for too long toward the end and the fans
didn't buy the sleeper as one of his finishers so it took the heat down when it should have
built. Ogawa got the pin after two back suplexes followed by a bridging back suplex. The
biggest pops were Kikuchi kicking out of Ogawa's finisher three times before it worked.
***1/4
FEBRUARY BUSINESS COMPARISONS
WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION

Estimated average attendance 2/95 3,590
Estimated average attendance 2/96 6,070* (+69.1%)
January 1996 4,890
Estimated average gate 2/95 $55,800
Estimated average gate 2/96 $88,780* (+59.1%)
January 1996 $72,000
Percentage of house shows sold out 2/95 10.0
Percentage of house shows sold out 2/96 0.0*
January 1996 31.3
Average cable television rating 2/95 2.1
Average cable television rating 2/96 2.0 (-4.8%)
January 1996 1.9
Major show 2/96: In Your House (5,500 sellout/$83,000/est. 0.75 buy rate/est. $1.61
million)
*Overseas shows not included in average
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING
Estimated average attendance 2/96 3,630 (+85.2%)
January 1996 3,050

Estimated average gate 2/96 $41,500 (+58.4%)
January 1996 $37,770
January 1996 40.0
Average cable television rating 2/95 2.2
Average cable television rating 2/96 2.4 (+9.1%)
January 1996 2.2*
Major show 2/95: SuperBrawl (13,300 sellout/10,500 paid/$165,000/Est. 0.95 buy
rate/Est. $2.45 million PPV revenue)
Major show 2/96: SuperBrawl (7,200 sellout/6,000 paid/$90,000/Est. 0.60 buy
rate/Est. $1.81 million PPV revenue)
Buy rate -36.8%; Overall event revenue -27.5%
*Because of addition of Nitro, comparisons are misleading
ALL JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
Estimated average attendance 2/96 2,160 (-0.5%)
January 1996 2,160
Estimated average gate 2/96 $68,960 (-30.8%)
January 1996 $69,040

January 1996 60.0
Average television rating 2/95 2.0
Average television rating 2/96 2.6 (+30.0%)
January 1996 2.6
NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
Estimated average attendance 2/96 3,580 (-10.7%)
January 1996 1,981*
Estimated average gate 2/96 $154,490 (-31.5%)
January 1996 $89,000*
January 1996 100.0*
January 1996 2.2
*New Japan only ran one regular house show in January 1996 so comparisons are
misleading
EMLL
They ran a triple main on 3/22 at Arena Mexico including what I'm told was the best
EMLL match thus far this year. The annual Salvador Lutteroth Cup, which is an
elmination match where they load up on good workers (last year's Lutteroth Cup match
may have been EMLL's best match of the year), was an eight-man with Atlantis & El Hijo
del Santo & Dandy & Lizmark vs. Felino & Negro Casas & Blue Panther & Dr. Wagner Jr.
It was rated between ***3/4 and ****1/2 from various correspondents, coming down to
Atlantis pinning Wagner in the finals which should set Atlantis up to challenge Wagner
for his CMLL light heavyweight title. In addition, Dos Caras & Hector Garza & La Fiera
captured the CMLL trios titles beating Bestia Salvaje & Sangre Chicana & Emilio Charles
Jr. when Caras made Chicana submit in the third fall. The other main event was a hair
match where Rambo upset El Brazo (who had previously lost his hair at Arena Mexico
only a few months back).
Fuerza Guerrera & Panther & El Signo of PROMELL (which works with EMLL)
defended their Mexican trios belts against Los Brazos on 3/21 in Puebla, but we don't
have the result as of yet.
Lots going on in the television front. PROMELL and WWO (Armando Espinoza & Rey
Misterio Sr.) ended up getting the Ch. 22 deal in Los Angeles that AAA expected to get to
air weekly on Sundays which started a couple of weeks back. It's a 13-week deal, and the
two sides are in negotiations for a 26-week extension. WWO is expected to be airing the
PROMELL shows from Tijuana, the next of which will be on 4/12. WWO is attempting to
get some talent from WWF and run PROMELL shows in San Jose and Fresno in May.
AAA
They are starting to build up for the three TripleMania shows. Although everything is
subject to change (subject to change with capital letters and exclamation points as past
history shows us plans for these shows will change almost on a weekly basis), the
working plans are the three shows will be in Chicago, Monterrey and at El Toreo in
Naucalpan. The working idea for Chicago is a 5/11 date at the Ampitheatre. The
Monterrey show will possibly be headlined by a Latin Lover vs. Heavy Metal hair match.
They are also talking about doing a Champion of Champions Cup tournament in which
all the singles champions in all the different weight divisions will be put in a
tournament. It appears plans for a La Parka vs. Fishman mask match have been
abandoned because nobody cares about Fishman anymore.
They also have tentative U.S. dates booked for 5/17 in San Antonio and 5/18 in Austin,
TX.
Konnan is saying that he's close to a deal with an American Spanish language network
for a weekly television show and for TV in seven Northern markets in Mexico which
would be the shows from Tijuana.
In the aftermath of the 3/16 Tijuana show, Mario Cardenas, a local major league
lawyer/music promoter who is co-partner with Konnan and Leonardo Carera
(Ultraman/Damian) in the Northern promotions came back and threatened to sue Rey
Misterio for the interview in La Paz where he gave away that Ultraman was going to lose
the mask match. Misterio is said to now be denying he ever made the remarks and is
said to be suspended for one week by the local commission over the newspaper
interview. Between his cut of the profits and his payoff for losing his mask, Carera
received $7,000 from the show. The next show is 3/29 with Los Chacales vs. X-Men,
Pandilleros vs. Genghis Khan & Depredator & Negro Azteca, Super Calo & Rey Misterio
Jr. & Leon Negro vs. Halloween & Juventud Guerrera & Psicosis and Konnan & Octagon
& La Parka vs. Pierroth Jr. & Cibernetico & Heavy Metal. The winner of the first match
then will face the winner of the third match, the loser of the first faces the loser of the
third, the winner of the second faces the winner of the fourth, and the loser of the second
faces the loser of the fourth. This is basically to create new angles involving the local
wrestlers against the national stars since the Psicosis-Ultraman angle was so successful.
Ultraman held the WWA middleweight title, and rather than coming back without the
mask, he'll come back as Damian as a heel which is the name he uses in almost every
other city now and it won't be acknowledged he was Ultraman, so the title will be put up
in a tournament. The tentative plans for the April Tijuana show are a tournament to
create the Baja California champion.
They appear to be building toward a major Pierroth Jr. vs. Mascara Sagrada angle since
at the 3/15 Nezahualcoyotl television taping (sellout 3,000), Pierroth fouled Sagrada to
win both the second and third falls of the main event with Pierroth & Heavy Metal &
Cien Caras vs. Sagrada & Konnan & Ultimo Dragon. Also on the show, Mr. Condor beat
Bronco in a hair match. Gallego and Marabunta kept going at it outside the ring, and
finally it wound up with all three members of both Los Diabolicos teams going at it.
ALL JAPAN
The Champion Carnival tour started off with a bang as Mitsuharu Misawa did his first
job in a singles match in nearly two years on 3/24 in Toda losing to Steve Williams in
19:59 after two backdrop drivers. The last job Misawa has done in a singles match was
when he lsot the Triple Crown to Williams on July 28, 1994 at Budokan Hall. Misawa,
who would be the technical favorite going in (there was much speculation he wouldn't
win this year since he won last year and the tournament creates a natural No. 1
contender), was also held to a 30:00 draw on 3/23 at Korakuen Hall against Johnny
Ace. Since he failed to win in his first two matches, that should increase the odds he's
going to the finals at the end.
Several of the main competitive matches with the top names have gone the 30:00 time
limit already, including Kenta Kobashi vs. Akira Taue on opening night, 3/22, at
Korakuen Hall, Misawa vs. Ace, and Taue vs. Williams on 3/26 in Suwa. Patriot has
already lost twice, to Toshiaki Kawada and Gary Albright, while Jun Akiyama has picked
up two losses, to Kobashi and Williams. The other top guy losing was Ace, to Stan
Hansen, on 3/24.
Three of the first four dates of the tour have been sellouts.
NEW JAPAN
There were major shows this past week in Nagoya and Tokyo, with Shinjiro Otani
becoming the first WCW cruiserweight champion beating Wild Pegasus with a swinging
DDT in the one match "tournament" on 3/20 in Nagoya before a sellout 11,000. More on
this in the WCW section. Bout was rated at somewhere between very good and
sensational (what a shock, huh?) by those there live. Shinya Hashimoto & Junji Hirata
retained the IWGP tag team titles beating Harlem Heat when Hashimoto pinned Booker
T with the brainbuster DDT in 14:41, and T sold the maneuver by doing a stretcher job.
Two key singles matches on the show saw Hiroyoshi Tenzan over Osamu Nishimura in
what was reported as a great match in 9:45 with a boston crab, and Kazuo Yamazaki
upsetting Masa Chono in 12:05 with the armbreaker. The actual final match of the show
was an eight-man tag with Satoshi Kojima & Takashi Iizuka & Kensuke Sasaki & Riki
Choshu over Michiyoshi Ohara & Akira Nogami & Kuniaki Kobayashi & Shiro
Koshinaka.
The tour finale on 3/26 at Tokyo Gymnasium before 10,305 saw the return of Tatsumi
Fujinami to new Japan as he teamed with Koshinaka to win the one-night eight-team tag
tournament beating Keiji Muto & Sasaki in the finals when Fujinami pinned Sasaki in
13:32. Fujinami & Koshinaka beat the WAR team of Nobutaka Araya & Genichiro
Tenryu in the first round, and won the semis over Chono & Tenzan. Hashimoto & Hirata
beat the WCW duo of Scott Norton & Hugh Morrus in the first round, but were
eliminated in the semis by Muto & Sasaki when Muto used the figure four on Hirata. The
UWFI team of Yoshihiro Takayama & Yoji Anjoh lost in the first round to Muto & Sasaki
with Sasaki using the Power strangle on Takayama. Also on the show were two nontourney matches, a junior war with Jushin Liger & Pegasus over Otani & Koji Kanemoto,
and the finals of the Young Lions tournament in something of an upset with Tokimitsu
Ishizawa beating Yuji Nagata with the armbreaker in 12:27. Usually the Young Lion
winner means it's the next guy who is going to be pushed to a higher level, although last
year's winner was Manabu Nakanishi (Kurosawa), who went to WCW and his career
went nowhere. Since Nagata lost in the finals last year, it was figured it would be his turn
to win it this year.
With the exception of a few Korakuen dates, New Japan is now down until the 4/29
Dome show.
UWFI ran a show with Heisei Ishingun on 3/23 in Sendai drawing 4,500 fans with the
main event of Nobuhiko Takada & Naoki Sano beating HI's Koshinaka & Ohara when
Takada made Ohara submit to the armbreaker in 12:46. At one point during the card
they actually ran an angle where The Golden Cups (Anjoh, Kenichi Yamamoto &
Takayama) got into an argument with Sano and Yamamoto slapped him, to set up a
grudge tag match on the 4/19 show. UWFI hasn't really done grudge matches and angles
like this in the past. The 4/19 show in Osaka Furitsu Gym is headlined by Takada &
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Choshu & Sasaki. Also Anjoh & Yamamoto vs. Sano & Tatsuo
Nakano, Masahiko Kakihara vs. Nagata, Takayama vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Kazushi
Sakuraba vs. Ishizawa and Billy Scott vs. Kiyoshi Tamura.
Fujinami is running his own independent shows on 4/6 and 4/7 using Chavo Guerrero
and Joe Malenko as his main foreign stars. Guerrero, 46, who has basically been retired
the past year or two, is the oldest brother of Eddie, was Fujinami's leading rival in the
late 70s over both the WWF junior heavyweight and NWA International junior
heavyweight championships and a big drawing card in the late 70s in Southern
California.
OTHER JAPAN NOTES
Yet another promotion (it's at least 32) was announced this past week as Yoshiaki
Fujiwara announced that he would be re-starting Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi with the
first show on 5/23 at Yokohama Bunka Gym with himself against Dick Murdoch in the
main event. Virtually all the former PWFG wrestlers with the exception of Don Arakawa
(who will rejoin this group) are now with the Battlarts promotion.
Great Sasuke, who missed most of this past week with an injury (which must have been
serious for him to miss any matches) captured the WWF light heavyweight title (which
had formerly been a title for the UWA promotion in Mexico) beating Aero Falsh on 3/24
in Shirakawa. This gives Sasuke both the WWF and British titles in lighter weight
divisions leading up to his match with Jushin Liger at the Tokyo Dome.
Atsushi Onita held a press conference on 3/25 with Combat Toyoda telling her that she
shouldn't do the explosive barbed wire death match because of the injury risk on the
FMW Kawasaki Baseball Stadium show. The whole thing was a work for Onita to get
over the danger and for Toyoda to say she's going to do it anyway.
The biggest AJW show of the week was 3/20 at Hakata Star Lanes with Sakie
Hasegawa's final singles match before her retirement match on 3/31, facing Manami
Toyota with Toyota winning in 31:33.
Pancrase will be holding two shows on 4/7 at Korakuen Hall. The first show will be an
eight-man tournament with the first round, consisting of Guy Mezger vs. Takaku Fuke,
Manabu Yamada (in his first match back after suffering a broken arm that was at one
point believed to be career ending) vs. Leon Dyke, Yoshiki Takahashi vs. Vernon White
and Ryushi Yanagisawa vs. Larry Papadopolous plus a non-tourney main event of
Masakatsu Funaki vs. Yuki Kondo. The evening show will be the tournament
championship and third place matches, plus Bas Rutten vs. Katsoumi Inagaki, Frank
Shamrock vs. Osami Shibuya and Jason DiLucia vs. Kunioka. This will be the group's
final card before its 5/16 Budokan Hall event.
Without Akira Maeda on the show, RINGS ran 3/25 in Niigata before 3,128 (a few
hundred shy of capacity) using Yoshihisa Yamamoto on top beating Bitsaze Tariel with
the choke sleeper. It was the night to put the Japanese over, since second-year wrestler
Tsuyoshi Kousaka beat Hans Nyman, who placed third in the recent Battle Dimension
tournanent, while Mitsuya Nagai beat Eruhim Micha, the Russian who won the Russian
version of the UFC in a far more grueling (because you had to win something like eight
matches rather than three over two or three days) tourney than even UFC last year.
Willie Williams faces Yamamoto in the main event on the April house show, and then
the May show will take place in Russia.
Dan Severn officially canceled his appearance on the 4/3 IWA show defending his NWA
title against Takashi Okano, I believe having something to do with negotiations to join
New Japan.
Silver King & El Texano, formerly with IWA, have left the group in the Victor Quinones
split and debuted for the tiny Wrestle Dream Factory promotion on 3/20 at Korakuen
Hall in a tag team tournament, going to the finals and losing to native Kamikaze and
new AAA sensation Super Crazy.
USWA
Don't have much on the 3/18 Memphis show other than Jerry Lawler beat ManKind to
keep the Unified title on top, Reggie B. Fine surprisingly won an elimination match to
earn a title shot with Lawler on the 3/23 television show, and Brian Christopher & Isaac
Yankem beat Men on a Mission. After the match, Yankem turned on Christopher. Don't
have a gate but was told it was awful.
PG-13, who lost a losers leaves town match a few weeks back to Tommy Rich & Doug
Gilbert, returned under masks this week as The Cyberpunks, wearing the same outfits
they wore a few years back when they toured Mexico for UWA.
They also officially brought back Bill Dundee. Booker Randy Hales asked Dundee to
come out and said that if Dundee touches him, he'll be banned from the TV studio
forever. He told Dundee he was rehiring him because he wanted to see him get his butt
kicked and because the wrestlers want him back because they're tired of him showing up
at some of the shows and interfering with the matches. Dundee was being managed by
Samantha Pain. At the end of the interview, Dundee went to shake Hales' hand and
Hales just walked off.
Lawler retained his title beating Fine on television for the 521st time.
Sid Vicious wasn't around again and there's no mention of him anymore.
Former ref Bill Rush worked as TV jobber Kalidescope.
The Cyberpunks debuted when the lights were turned off in the studio and when they
were turned on, they were there. Naturally Rich & Gilbert freaked out since they had
beaten them in the loser leaves town match. Dundee also came out and said he knew
they were Jamie & Wolfie. The lights went out again, and this time when they came on,
Wolfie under the hood attacked Dundee and the two brawled on the floor.
With Yankem out of the picture, Christopher went to mend fences with Lawler to be his
tag partner against MOM and told Lawler to wrestle as dirty as he ever did.
The 3/25 Memphis card was scheduled as Head Bangers vs. Tony Williams & David
Haskins, Scott Bowden vs. Brandon Baxter, Miss Texas vs. Tasha Simone, Christopher
vs. Mo, Mabel defends the USWA title against Jesse James Armstrong, Rich & Gilbert
defend against Cyberpunks and Lawler & Christopher vs. Mo & Mabel in a lights out
match.
Yoshi Kwan will return after he finishes his FMW tour.
ECW
The television show that aired on 3/19 was among the three or four best shows in the
history of the company, largely due to them airing highlights of Rey Misterio Jr. vs.
Juventud Guerrera from Queens, the entire match from Philadelphia and the nonwrestling aspect of the show was the Brian Pillman show. Pillman, who is back in good
graces with ECW (which may be more than can be said with WCW), was involved in two
angles (one from Queens, the other from Philadelphia), and two vignettes, one in which
he was acting like he got a new job as a book in a restaurant and spit on the salad he was
making for Gary Juster, and the other, the show ender, where an old man asked him for
his autograph and he was acting normal and the guy said that he's different from how he
appears on television, and Pillman basically said that loose cannon stuff is all a work,
then after the guy left, he went crazy as the show ended.
Anyway, whatever problems existed between Pillman and Heyman were resolved
(Heyman claims there were no problems to begin with) on 3/19. Both have pretty well
agreed to build the angle toward a Pillman vs. Shane Douglas match in Philadelphia, but
at a larger arena, with talk of them moving to a 3,000-seat building in late April
although nothing has been announced officially.
Since Pillman does, in fact, have contractual ties to WCW through the middle of April,
for him to work on TV here means it was done with WCW's approval which means,
despite public portrayals to the contrary, the sides are working together at the very least
in this specific instance. Heyman denies any working with WCW saying Steve Karel put
the deal together through a mutual friend of his and Pillman's and that he would never
work with WCW.
Line-up for 3/30 at ECW Arena besides the six-man main event with Sandman &
Tommy Draemer & Shane Douglas vs. Raven & Bruise Brothers, will be Too Cold
Scorpio vs. Rob Van Dam for the TV title, Taz vs. Buh Buh Ray Dudley, Pit Bulls vs.
Stevie Richards & Blue Meanie and the debut of Billy Black.
After seeing the TV version of Misterio-Guerrera from Philadelphia and the video from
Tijuana, I'd have to rate the Philadelphia match as better even though Tijuana had more
heat and psychology. My feeling from watching the TV version is it was the best match
ever on ECW television and the best match of the year from any promotion thus far. For
all the valid knocks about ECW's style and that certain performers aren't nearly as good
as people (including those in the business, witness certain unsuccessful post-ECW
pushes) think, they've had two TV matches in the last three weeks (Misterio-Guerrera
and the 30:00 Sabu-Scorpio) that are better than anything in the U.S. this year and
better than all but a few matches in the U.S. last year as well.
HERE AND THERE
A couple of corrections from last week. We had listed results of a show on 3/8 in
Truman, AR with a match with PG-13 vs. Tommy Rich & Eddie Gilbert, and of course it
was Doug Gilbert.
Also, in regard to the EFC PPV show on 4/26, Steve Nelson won't have a weight
advantage in his match against Ralph Gracie. By contract, Nelson has to weigh in at 159
or less, the same weight as Gracie, for their match. We had reported that Nelson would
go into the match with a 30 pound weight advantage. Nelson started trimming down at
193, and as of the weekend was already down to 169 so he'll make weight easily. He's
going to an amateur wrestling tournament in Oklahoma City in two weeks where he'll
compete at 163 to get used to competing at the lighter weight. Nelson, 32, a former
national champion in sombo (submission) wrestling, said that he'll retire from
competition if he loses to Gracie. He hasn't been contacted to do any pro wrestling since
UWFI became basically a New Japan satellite group and thus had no use for its own
foreigners last summer. For two years he's tried to get WCW to start up a shooters
division with no luck. EFC ads have hit the martial arts mags and a TV ad aired after
Uncensored on Request, with all the advertising pushing three names, Ralph Gracie,
Igor Zinoviev and Conan (Marcus Silveira), all of whom appeared on the first EFC PPV
show. We believe the show will be from Montreal, although the competitors either
haven't been told where it'll be or have been told to keep it a secret because of the
political problems in holding the events. What we do know is that they'll have a
heavyweight (200+) and middleweight (160-199) division championship match with
Zinoviev and Conan defending, and that Zinoviev will face Orlando Weit, a muay thai
fighter who was KO'd in UFC II by Remco Pardouel's elbows straight down. I believe it'll
be a six-match show with no tournaments. They'll be doing a championship match and a
contenders match in the upper two weight classes, with the winner of the contenders
match meeting the champion on the follow-up PPV show giving the shows a natural
build. In the lightweight division, because there is no champion, Nelson faces Ralph
Gracie and Carlson Gracie Jr. faces John Lewis (the two had a dreadful draw on the first
PPV) with the two winners facing on the next PPV unless the two Gracies win, in which
case I don't know what will happen since Gracies aren't going to fight other Gracies.
Pancrase commercials are also in both the martial arts mags and on television (airing
after Uncensored as well), not focusing on any competitors or even mentioning any, but
talking about kicks and submissions. There didn't appear to be anything in the
commercials that would lead one to believe the show would do any better than the K-1
events WCW promoted last year (0.1ish).
Another correection. On the 5/4 show in Paterson, NJ, Adam Bomb won't be there
wrestling King Kong Bundy and the Observer from olast week listed results of a 3/16
show in Inman, SC that was actually in Greenwood, SC.
There actually has been a ton of talk within wrestling, particularly in the past few weeks
of a documentary being done by Barry Blaustein on behind the scenes pro wrestling.
Supposedly it's supposed to be similar to what the film Pumping Iron was for
bodybuilding. Eric Bischoff has had a lot of contact with the people putting it together of
late.
Got a chance to see the local All Pro Wrestling show on 3/22 in Aptos, CA. It's basically a
collection of guys trained at Roland Alexander's school in Hayward. The positives were
the guys were well trained in building a match rather than just going out there and doing
moves, and from an execution standpoint, they are way ahead of most indie workers I've
seen. The most impressive guy to me was a 360-pound Mike Shaw type named Joe
Applebaumer, whose finisher, the Apple bomb, is a combination Benoit and Liger bomb.
When you see a guy that size with a Mike Shaw build on an indie show that has only had
about a dozen matches, you immediately expect the worst and in this case it was the
opposite. In a Battle Royal, he was left with Matt Hyson, a Juventud Guerrera sized
wrestler, for the last several minutes and they worked a totally believable series of spots
which the fans totally bought including the small guy winning at the end. The style was a
combination of the Roy Shires style of work I grew up on but incorporating Mexican
flying spots. Cowboy Lang, who was in the semifinal of the second live wrestling show I
ever saw (25 years ago) was on the show. After seeing the Mexican minis, it makes the
old American midget stuff obsolete, although Lang's opponent, Lil Nasty Boy, did a good
job. The negative was that the show lasted about three hours, which is too long for a spot
show where people aren't into all the angles from television, and the crowd was burned
out by the main event. It also appeared that everyone on the show was steroid free, and
they actually talked about that in the program.
Gary Woronchak's Midwest Territorial Wrestling, which hasn't run since September, will
be doing a show with Border City Wrestling on 4/26 in LaSalle, ONT and running
monthly after that, with Scott D'Amore vs. D.Lo Brown on top.
An editorial appeared on 3/19 in the Chicago Tribune regarding UFC by a Chicago
alderman. There is religious pressure being brought on the Chicago City Council to ban
UFC in a council meeting this week. Typical knee-jerk reaction from someone who saw
the 20/20 piece (you can tell by the wording and the points that are taken right from the
piece) saying "it is a far cry from boxing governed by Marquess of Queensberry rules,
which provides formal rounds, 10-counts, weight classes and so on."
WWWA on 3/30 in Marion City, PA with Tony Atlas vs. Glenn Osbourne on top.
A correction from recent issues. Mil Mascaras' pay for the shows in the small Compton,
CA arena (capacity only a few hundred) has been $550. Mascaras is asking $1,500 to
$2,000 at larger buildings.
WCW
WWF
Pretty quiet week since there are no shows until Wrestlemania. Since it's the night
before the big show and it's a live special, I kind of expect an angle coming out of the
Slammys.
Goldust appeared on Conan O'Brien on 3/21 totally in character. They basically had him
come on to Conan, who called security and he started coming on to them. The whole
segment was obviously worked. Bret Hart was on Regis & Kathy Lee on 3/26.
Besides the Raw number, Mania did a 1.5 and Action Zone a 1.8 over the weekend.
The Connecticut Post is expected to either do, or have already done, a story concerning
all the protests of the Goldust character. Several gay groups in the Northeast are calling
for members to write negative letters to Titan to drop the character. From a business
standpoint, it appears the character is getting over. I can definitely see and even agree
with the points made by those against it. The angle does encourage and in some cases
glorify gay bashing, and the stuff where they use the mind games terminology is a smoke
screen so they can have their cake and eat it in that they can say it's not a homophobia
angle when it clearly is.
Marc Mero (actually his given last name is really Merowitz and it was shortened when he
went into boxing) can't use any kind of costuming similar to his Johnny B. Badd
character, or at least that's what WCW is trying to protect. He'll probably do a lot of
goodwill ambassador stuff like what Savage used to do along with the wrestling.
The WWF has officially pulled out of participating in the 6/1 World Wrestling Peace
Festival in Los Angeles. It was pretty much expected that was the decision they had
either made or were going to make when they had no representation at the press
conference.
Sid will be returning when his neck injury heals up.
Jerry Lawler's match where he did his own commentary against Al Jackson was
hilarious.
The huge push for the Sunny video didn't make a difference in the Action Zone ratings as
it was the same number they've been getting every week.
The Hart-Michaels build-up over the weekend continued to be first-rate. Bret's work as
the very subtle heel is classic stuff.
There was no Billionaire Ted skit on the 3/25 Raw show.

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April 2, 1996 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Preview for

Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart Iron Match Match at

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

HART AND MICHAELS' WRESTLEMANIA RESULTS

team in order to eliminate them.

on KSTP radio in Minneapolis, and will be airing in an episode of "X-Files" in a few

3/23 Kings Mountain, NC (North American Wrestling Alliance - 134):

WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION

Estimated average gate 2/95 $26,200

January 1996 $69,040

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