DeanColes1987

"Drinking combined with tension from a long day of wrestling and travelling led to an argument between Arn Anderson and Mike Enos that given the circumstances, witnesses say, was close to becoming much more serious....Mike Enos was talking on his cell phone on the plane which is against regulations. Arn Anderson confronted Enos about the infraction, telling him if he didn’t get off the phone the plane might crash. When Enos continued talking on the phone, tension grew. Arn got into an argument with the flight attendant, but she told him that talking on the cell phone wouldn’t actually affect the safety of the flight. Eventually, Enos hung up the phone and walked away from Arn by going into the bathroom. Arn made it clear he was prepared should the argument escalate into a fight, perhaps realizing he was outnumbered since Enos’ seat was next to his friend Bobby Duncum Jr." - Apr 24, 99 Torch "Curt Hennig kept the title beating Jerry Blackwell in 17:25 (having Blackwell wrestle that long in Denver should have Wahoo up before a grand jury on charges of cruel and unusual punishment--in Denver's thin air normal wrestlers blow up fast, Jerry was near heart attack city by 3:00)" - Oct 26, 87 Observer "Alex Wright has been backstage at the last few Nitros. He is supposed to film vignettes introducing his new character, but no one ever gets around to it, so he just stands around doing nothing." - Aug 14, 99 Torch "Titan is suing Tom Zenk for $100,000 for breach of contract." - Nov 2, 87 Observer "At one point over the past couple of weeks, Buff Bagwell was so upset with a finish of a match he disappeared. He was found sitting in his car in protest and had to be talked into returning to the arena." - Aug 28, 99 Torch "From the weekend Superstars show, it appears that Vic Venom did get heat about saying Bret Hart would win the Rumble so assuredly the previous week, since Bret is scheduled to win (and things can always change although this one may be a hard one to change) as he came back and kind of backed off saying you can never know for sure who would win a Rumble." - Jan 6, 97 Observer "Vince McMahon says he isn’t bothered by last month’s vote by the Oregon legislature to continue strict regulation of pro wrestling. 'Fuck them' McMahon tells the TORCH. 'You can print that. We only go where we’re welcome. If they don’t want us, I don’t give a shit.' ” - Aug 14, 99 Torch "I know that most of the newsletters including this one have been very critical of the direction JCP has taken over the past few months. I'm not going to waste space going over points that have been beat to death, however this past Sunday in Greensboro, the Road Warriors & Dusty & Nikita beat The Four Horsemen in a cage match before 5,117 fans. I think that makes more of a point than all the points everyone else has come up with." - Oct 12, 87 Observer "In order to make room under their set talent budget, WCW had released The Nasty Boys on Wednesday, Mar. 6. The Nastys had rarely been used in recent months because when the current WCW booking committee formed last year (Kevin Sullivan, Arn Anderson, Paul Orndorff, Terry Taylor), they believed the Nastys were overexposed and didn't take enough bumps to deserve a main event spot. On Tuesday, perhaps in response to the loss of Badd, WCW met again with the Nastys and came to terms for them to return. Bischoff wanted to avoid the perception that WCW and the WWF were trading talent." - Mar 16, 96 Torch "The TV show here has turned into the sexual innuendo hour, virtually every interview Hall, Smothers and Armstrong are doing seems more like advertising for arena rats rather than doing anything to build up fan interest." - Mar 2, 87 Observer "Dreamer grabbed the mic and ripped on Jason, claiming he blows the boys in the locker room. He called Jasmine a crack whore and claimed Bytch was a hooker." - Jan 30, 99 Torch "The New Breed is supposed to be a heel team now and feud with Brad Armstrong & Tim Horner around the horn, but last word I got was that Sean Royal never came back from Christmas vacation." - Jan 11, 88 Observer "The Ric Flair display at the Nitro Grill in Las Vegas, Nev. misspells Ric’s name 'Rick' " - Sept. 4, 99 Torch "I'm not sure what this says about our society, but on 1/19 -- a national holiday for Martin Luther King's birthday, Hulk Hogan and Kimala will meet in a sold out Madison Square Garden." - 86 Observer Yearbook "Ralphus had become the joke of the locker room because he believed he was a superstar. He got such a big head that he refused to eat lunch with his co–workers on the ring crew anymore. Two months ago during the California swing, he showed up at the PPV with a young woman on each arm. He either joked or seriously claimed that one of them was his new girlfriend and he was dumping his wife for her. He claimed to some that he was going to do a run–in to save Kevin Nash from an attack as part of a TV angle. He also barked out orders to wrestlers when they were due for meetings with management or doctors backstage at events. He apparently believes it is only a matter of time before WCW is forced to return him to TV to be a big star again." - Apr 24, 99 Torch "A lot has happened, and none of it good, in the three stooges (Ole Anderson-Bob Roop-Ronnie Garvin) promotion." - July 83 Observer "There was talk this week of having Jericho job to Ralphus on his final day with the company, but Jericho would probably turn it into a highly entertaining and not–at–all damaging send–off." - July 10, 99 Torch "The reason Leon White is getting title bouts with Hansen is because 'he's a young guy and a nice guy really anxious to prove himself.' In other words he doesn't complain when asked to lose. They ran the bout on TV with Stan getting a clean pin, now are bringing it back in the arenas, billing White as undefeated." - Apr 22, 86 Observer "Arn Anderson, a member of WCW management, slapped wrestler Disco Inferno in front of a dozen other wrestlers....Disco had given Hugh Morrus a hard time. Morrus was supposed to wrestle in front of his family over the weekend. Disco made a comment about how Hugh’s kids like him (Disco) better than their dad. He has a rep for not fighting back when provoked thus he is an easy target. Arn told Disco to lay off the family talk. Disco and Arn often trade good–natured verbal barbs, so Disco responded as usual. Arn then slapped him hard across the face, calling it a “Rome, Georgia ass–kicking.” Everyone was shocked and silence fell over the bus....It wasn’t the first time Disco has been slapped in front of fellow wrestlers. Eddie Guerrero on a tour of Europe more than a year ago slapped Disco in a bar when he irritated him." - Apr 24, 99 Torch

"Eric Bischoff held a backstage meeting with all of the wrestlers who were in Las Vegas for Nitro and offered a release to anyone who is unhappy. Bischoff started the meeting by singling out Raven and lecturing him for his negative comments about WCW on the Mancow radio show. Bischoff said he would grant any unhappy wrestlers their release from WCW. Raven stood up and left the room, indicating he wished for his release." - Aug 28, 99 Torch "I'm told Shawn Michaels is making a great heel, except it's no act." - Jan 15, 88 Observer "Bischoff then turned his attention to Konnan for using inappropriate language during a promo at a weekend house show, and Rey Mysterio Jr. for using the term 'Hershey Highway' on last week’s Nitro. He asked them what six–year–olds would think about the remarks. Konnan asked Bischoff what the difference is between what he said at the house show (to the Rednecks: 'You haven’t had pussy since pussy had you') and the language Randy Savage and Dennis Rodman had been using on Nitro. Bischoff avoided the question and instead chewed out Konnan for complaining too much." - Aug 28, 99 Torch "Eddie Gilbert will be meeting with Vince McMahon this upcoming week representing himself, Terry Taylor, Sting and Terry Taylor. It's no secret that within the industry that Sting is one of the wrestlers Titan covets the most." - Oct 26, 87 Observer "Bischoff ripped Buff Bagwell for his role in the pre–PPV fight he had with Ernest Miller by telling him to quit acting like a kid and start acting professionally." - Aug 28, 99 Torch "Central States has been running down Ric Flair because Crockett pulled him out of his booking here. They are saying Flair was afraid of Dave Peterson and that he picks his opponents and will only meet 'fat people and Russians.' - June 8, 87 Observer "Bischoff also ripped on Public Enemy for recently voicing their opinion about having to do a job to Sid and refusing to take a double chokeslam." - Aug 28, 99 Torch "The gimmick they were working was that since Mantell owned Cooley's contract, all of Cooley's wrestling proceeds went to Mantell so Cooley was without any money for Christmas--they even went so far to show Cooley's two daughters with an empty Christmas tree." - Jan 15, 88 Observer "Immediately following the meeting, several wrestlers made phone calls (including Raven, who is said to have called Paul Heyman within ten minutes of walking out) to see if either the WWF or ECW would be interested in their services. While the WWF officially said they couldn’t talk to anyone under contract because of tampering laws, some say there were indications given that they would be interested in several wrestlers should they gain a full release." - Aug 28, 99 Torch "I figured it wouldn't take long before Dusty responded to the WWF calling Mike Jones 'Virgil' the valet. On TBS this weekend, Dusty was talking about Ron Simmons and said something like 'he didn't have to bleach his hair blonde to get a job' and said NWA had real wrestlers and not guys on cups." - July 27, 87 Observer "After the meeting, Konnan and Bischoff met in Bischoff’s office. The two are said to have had a screaming match which resulted in Konnan asking for his release and his friend, Mysterio, doing the same later." - Aug 28, 99 Torch "With increasing cooperation between Gagne and outside offices run by the Fullers in Alabama, Jarrett and Lawler in Tennessee, Geigel in Kansas City and Don Owen in Oregon; it actually makes Hennig the champion recognized by more promotions than any other champion in the world for whatever that may be worth." - May 25, 87 Observer "Billy Kidman approached Bischoff at the bar and asked to be released from his three–year deal which he signed just a few months ago. Sources say Bischoff asked Kidman why he would consider letting him go after investing two years building him up. One source says Bischoff grew frustrated and told Kidman he could pick up his release the next day....After hearing that the releases have limitations, Kidman has reportedly decided to stay in WCW as he was only interested in leaving if he could go to the WWF (although ECW would love to have him)." - Aug 28, 99 Torch "The third hour opened with Demolition winning a squash managed by a face painted Mr. Fuji (which ends even their slimmest hopes of ever getting over). - Apr 6, 87 Observer "Craig Leathers and Kevin Sullivan stood behind Bischoff during the meeting in Vegas and are being compared to the characters that Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco play on WWF TV because they stood there nodding." - Aug 28, 99 Torch "The reason Adonis had been wrestling with a veil on was because he came out on the short end of a dressing room brawl with Danny Spivey and had himself punched out really bad." - July 7, 86 Observer "Poffo is getting a six–figure contract and has wrestled only a few times for WCW. One time he showed up at a WCW event near his hometown in Florida and was asked to wrestle. He said he couldn’t because he didn’t bring his gear. You’d think if you get paid six figures to work one day every few months, you’d come prepared to work." Oct 9, 99 Torch "How many of you know who Michael St. John is? He's a former TV announcer in Memphis and some of the other Southern promotions and probably weighs 140 pounds, but at least World Class list him in the Light Heavyweight division, as the No. 5 contender." - Nov 9, 87 Observer "Ticket sales are showing signs of lagging across the board. WCW has made money the last couple of years. This year they are apparently on pace to basically break even. If that’s the case, some of the deals Bischoff has brokered (such as a video production deal involving Jason Hervey and Mandalay, which some believe could have been done much cheaper in–house by Turner) will be scrutinized much more closely than if WCW were making tens of millions in profit." - Sept. 4, 99 Torch

"Van Hammer was arrested on two counts of possession of illegally prescribed prescription drugs, a story which got publicity in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. WCW told reporters he hadn't worked for them for two years, despite his appearance last month at their Main Event TV tapings." - Jan 21, 95 Torch "Interesting that Dusty did an interview screaming about how this is the NWA and you don't buy a belt in the NWA....Steiner got the Florida belt for free, which is about what the Florida champion is worth these days." - Feb 8, 88 Observer "Those who watch closely say Stephanie McMahon displays more of an interest in the inner workings of the WWF and pays more attention to how things work than Shane McMahon." - May 8, 99 Torch "An Indian Strap match for the title between Wahoo McDaniel and Curt Hennig ended when Adrian Adonis interfered and used a knife to cut the strap but did so in such a manner that he knifed Curt's finger and blood flew like crazy....Curt had to be hospitalized and it was thought he might lose a portion of his finger because of Adonis' knife (legit here)." - Dec 21, 87 Observer "Hunter was promised he'd be 'taken care of' in exchange for the Warrior job." - Apr 6, 96 Torch "The show on 11/21 in Hollywood, FL saw the Von Erichs featured in the local newspaper, on local radio shows and even saw Kevin & Kerry get the keys to the city of Pembroke Pines, FL for 'their work in combatting drug abuse.' " - Nov 30, 87 Observer "The cheerleader, telling the audience for whom to cheer, accidentally told them to cheer Simmons and boo Armstrong. A WCW director whispered in his ear that both were good guys, the cheerleader looked embarassed." - Nov 27, 93 Torch "What actually happened with Shane Douglas was that he was given a finishing notice, and asked if he could leave early to start school in Pennsylvania, and then when he got back, he was told the notice was a mistake and he was wanted back." - Nov 16, 87 Observer "WCW has asked Larry Zbyszko to stop standing and encouraging the crowd to cheer him at the start of Nitro." - Feb 6, 99 Torch "Shane Douglas was fired once again by JCP." - Nov 30, 87 Observer "Stan Lane turned down an offer to work for WCW for $250 a night. WCW wanted Lane to reform his team with Bobby Eaton. The offer came in a matter of minutes after the WCW office found out about Jim Cornette's deal with the WWF. 'Greg Gagne called me and offered me $250,' Lane told the Torch Monday night. 'I wanted $400, but settled for $250. Gagne said he would check, but apparently it was too high for their pay structure. He said they have so many guys on big money contracts, they can't afford to pay much to new talent.' Lane would have tagged with Eaton just through September, replacing the departed Chris Benoit's bookings on small shows in Georgia and Alabama." - August 14, 93 Torch "Apparently the heat between Mrs. McMichael and Mrs. Sullivan is legit as they won't even dress in the same dressing room." - Jan 6, 97 Observer "When Todd Pettengill plugged the WWF Magazine on WWF Mania Saturday morning, he avoided showing the cover featuring Randy Savage. He usually shows the cover." - Nov 19, 94 Torch "They are doing a Piper's Pit type segment on the local show called 'Brenda's Beauty Shop' hosted by Brenda Britton. Since I don't want a bunch of nasty letters coming in, you'll just have to guess my reaction." - May 25, 87 Observer "The Flair–Windham match had the stipulation that if Flair won he’d receive five minutes with Bischoff. Bischoff didn’t make it to the show so they changed the planned finish to Windham winning in order to avoid acknowledging Bischoff wasn’t there." - Feb 6, 99 Torch "Tully & Arn are great, but how many times can you watch them live, particularly when they always lose?" - Dec 28, 87 Observer "Van Hammer, real name Mark Hildreth, made local news in Atlanta when some adult video and book stores were raided in the area, one of which was owned by Hildreth's family. Hildreth criticized police on the radio saying they should spend their time going after real criminals." - June 10, 95 Torch

"Janie Engle, Elizabeth and a couple of the Nitro Girls are considered to be the most underrated power brokers in WCW. Given who they are friends with, (and in a couple of cases, more than friends with) they are privy to more company info than some of the top wrestlers. They are referred to by some of the male wrestlers as the 'Kotex Mafia' " - Mar, 13 99 Torch "At the 6/16 Albuquerque card there were only 1,705 fans-- yet when they announced Hulk Hogan to appear on 7/20, within 30 minutes more than 2,000 tickets were purchased." - June 29, 87 Observer "12. Who was shown calmly and studiously studying a computer monitor and typing thoughtful responses to WCW fans questions on Compuserve? (a) Mike Tenay; (b) Eric Bischoff; (c) Harvey Shiller; (d) Mark Madden; (e) the number one heel who has vowed to destroy Hulkamania, the stinky, nasty Giant?" - Mar 30, 96 Torch "Speaking of the Mulkeys, isn't it amazing they print up those nice looking Mulkeymania shirts, give these guys a win on TV, then send them to Florida to be jobbers at the height of their popularity." - May 25, 87 Observer "At Uncensored, Luger complained backstage about Jerry Flynn wearing black and red. He argued that those colors should be reserved for just members of the Wolfpac." - Mar 27, 99 Torch "The Vader-Simmons title change was supposed to take place on 12/29 in Philadelphia, however Simmons missed the show. Bill Watts and the television camera crew flew to Philadelphia to film the title change that never took place and you can just imagine the heat that caused." - Jan 15, 93 Observer "Mikey Whipwreck made his first appearance in a WCW locker room last week and Nash had to ask him who he was. Head of security Doug Dillinger nearly threw Whipwreck out of the building because he didn’t know who Mikey was and Mikey wasn’t wearing his proper credentials." - Mar 20, 99 Torch "In that Danny Davis skit where Jack Tunney fires him, the reason Howard Finkel gave Jack the mic outside the ring was because poor Jack appeared to have blown up chasing Davis down the runaway." - Feb 23, 87 Observer "29. Why did Stevie Ray, Ernest Miller, and Norman Smiley suddenly get a bunch of face time on WCW television? A. Because of their wrestling talent, B. Because of their unique personalities, C. Because of their interview ability or D. Because 'Hard Work' Bobby Walker filed suit against WCW for racial discrimination." - Feb 6, 99 Torch, Bruce Mitchell Quiz "Does Ric Flair really want to be a babyface? that interview putting down the Celtics and praising the Lakers before a trip to Los Angeles sure makes it seem so." - Dec 29, 86 Observer "On last week’s Raw they bleeped some of Sean Waltman’s comments. He made comments about being fired by 'bigger assholes' than Vince McMahon. Vince didn’t want that on the air probably because he wants people to think he’s a bigger asshole than Eric Bischoff." - Feb 6, 99 Torch "Dusty pinned Dillon, who subbed for Blanchard, in just 30 seconds. Dusty grabbed the mic and said, 'tell Hulk Hogan that Dusty's in town.' It got a big roar, because anyone who likes the WWF wasn't at this card since both Hulk and Piper were across town." - Oct 27, 86 Observer "Sandman is lifting weights apparently for the first time in his life to prepare for his in–ring debut for WCW." - Jan 30, 99 Torch "Ricky Steamboat's new lizard is a giant alligator after the last one walked out." - Sept 22, 86 Observer "35. What was the real reason internet icon and good friend to everyone Bob Ryder took a stand against the extreme attitude of the WWF? A. His religious beliefs were offended by the crucifixion of Steve Austin, B. His value system was appalled at the idea of children watching Sexual Chocolate’s three–way, C. The WWF is the only one of the Big Three he doesn’t work for." - Feb 6, 99 Torch, Bruce Mitchell Quiz "If in December, you had told me that over the next six months, JCP would add names like Lex Luger, Barry Windham, Steve Williams, The Freebirds, Terry Taylor, Eddie Gilbert, Chris Adams, Sting and Rick Steiner to its stable, pick up all the UWF television and arena contracts and lose at the same time only a few non-headliner talents like Wahoo McDaniel, Rick Rude, Bill Dundee, Dutch Mantell and a few others, I'd have thought that irregardless of how Titan was doing, JCP would be drawing huge crowds from coast-to-coast. Instead with the exception of Luger, none of the newcomers were used correctly or for that matter allowed the opportunity to get over. Instead, 'the clique' continued to be pushed past the point of staleness while the rest of the pack was treated as middle-of-the-card guys." - Oct 26, 87 Observer

Dave plugging a fund for a Cocaine Trafficker (who ran a massage parlor/brothel on the side) "A fund has been set up to help pay for the huge legal expenses of wrestler Al Blake (Vladimir Petrov) who was convicted on a cocaine trafficking charge a few months back. For more information you can write: Allen Blake Fund, Box 611, Anoka, MN 55303. If anyone has any Vladimir Petrov memorabilia you can also write the same address." - Feb 29, 88 Observer

"Johnny Grunge was arrested last week after driving off with a WCW production truck without permission.... Grunge became somewhat of a hero in some circles, not for driving drunk, but for the 'guts' (choose your word) he showed in stealing a WCW truck in his first month on the job. He was even more popular because it was David Crockett's truck, and he's not the most popular guy on the WCW staff." - Feb 17, 96 Torch "Wahoo was sued by a fan over an incident that occurred last year outside the Greensboro Coliseum. The fan says he was struck 3 times in the face and now has scars and nosebleeds. Fan was awarded $35,000 by the judge." - Mat Results Vol 04 No 04 "Randy & Bill Mulkey beat The New Breed which got a great reaction (guess they hadn't decided to push Champion-Royal until a few days later)" - Apr 20, 87 Observer " 'To this day, I think one of the most effective videos done was the Earthquake-Hulk Hogan video done by the WWF. That was done to music. Did anybody sit there and accuse the WWF of being like a group on MTV? No. Everybody was astonished this year by the quality of Hacksaw Jim Duggan's music video. Nobody sat there and said, 'Aw, they're just trying to be like a rock ‘n‘ roll group.' Everybody was enthralled by the production quality and got into the video. It was first class all the way. I think if you do things first class, I think people will appreciate it.' " - August 7, 93 Torch, Paul Heyman Torch Talk "The Worldwide that aired this weekend in Westpoint, MS had both the Worldwide and Jack Gregory commentary on at the same time, so the entire shows sounded like total jibberish." - Feb 8, 88 Observer " 'Vince McMahon's ego won't ever allow him to admit that I'm the one who is kicking his ass every week. He's out there trying to paint this picture that Ted Turner is beating him up. Ted Turner has so many things he has to tend to, I don't think Vince McMahon's name flashes through Ted Turner's mind more than once a year or twice a year....You have this transvestite character that makes lewd remarks, rubs himself, gets chased around and stripped down to his ladies' underwear. I don't see the 'family entertainment' Vince McMahon so prides the WWF in having with that character' " - Apr 20, 96 Torch, Eric Bischoff Quotes "Samula is the first wrestler ever to actually improve by going into the WWF." - Aug 83 Observer "On the Apr. 15 Nitro, the original plans had Hulk Hogan being stretchered after an attack by the Giant which would explain his absence from WCW for several months. He had requested time off saying he had a movie deal in the works to play a Santa character. At the last moment he changed plans and dominated the Giant rather than get beat up by him. As of deadline, word is that Hogan will be taking time off despite the 'heroic achievement' on Nitro." - Apr 27, 96 Torch "Ron Garvin has been World Champion for three weeks now and they are still showing that video of Flair as the champion." - Oct 26, 87 Observer "Hogan is taking time off until August. If things go well without him, will he be welcome back with the same autonomy he left with?" - May 4, 96 Torch "Islanders vs. Martel and Santana in 2 of 3 falls (can you believe it--a WWF match I'm looking forward to seeing)" - Oct 12, 87 Observer "From a storyline perspective, Hulk Hogan is slated to get the last laugh. Rumor has it that 'Team WWF' (Hall, Nash, Luger, DiBiase) will end up getting the better of 'Team WCW,' including most notably Sting and Randy Savage. It will be after a period of weeks or months of 'Team WWF' getting the better of WCW that Hogan will return and 'save the day.' The plan is for Hogan to then soundly end up the victor and symbolically beat the WWF - something he will take great satisfaction in after the way the WWF depicted him as "The Huckster" in the skits on Raw. If WCW plays their cards right, it should be an eventful and profitable summer and fall." - June 1, 96 Torch "I'm told that Hogan & Savage work better together than Hogan & Piper did because Savage knows his place." - Jan 15, 88 Observer "In case you haven't heard about it by now, the following tag team made its debut at the recent WCW TV taping: Col. Rob Parker's Posse, namely the GWF's Ebony Experience in shackles and chains. Yes, in shackles and chains. Eric Bischoff, in a rare moment of lucidity, saw what was about to transpire and barred the gimmick, but not the team, from TV. It is an absolutely undeniable fact that the gimmick was thought of by, of all people, Sid Vicious and approved by Dusty Rhodes and Ole Anderson....It will be said that they're supposed to be death row convicts if the gimmick airs. But, given the sight of two black men in shackles and chains led to the ring by a Southern plantation owner, I don't think that explanation flies. Dusty and Ole could say Parker's team is into S&M, bondage, and discipline, whatever. That certainly won't alter what it looks like. Which is exactly what it's intended to look like....When I called WCW for comment from Anderson or Rhodes, I got a return call from a PR flack who said, 'Oh, Ole says that was their gimmick in Texas.' - June 28, 93 Torch, Mark Madden Column "Rumors are flying everywhere about JCP's current financial situation....Unlike Titan, JCP has most of its wrestlers signed to long term contracts. For example, let's say Luger's contract was for $350,000 a year. That doesn't mean Luger is getting $7,000 each week. The guys weekly checks are probably what they would have been without a contract, basically depending on the gates that week. What the contract provides for is that when the year is up, if Luger earned less than $350,000--then Crockett would make up the difference at the end of the year. Apparently most of the guys, if not all of them, will earn less, and significantly so in some cases, than their contract stipulated. So Crockett has a major financial obligation to make up in a few weeks....Thinking from Crockett's side is if there is a bad week you don't run into a cash flow problem. The theory was they would be coming off Starrcade and the Christmas TV ad revenue, which would more than make up for any end of year obligations. Starrcade and Christmas TV ads weren't nearly what Crockett had expected....If Crockett renege on the contracts, then Titan could basically pick and choose which guys they want" - Dec 28, 87 Observer

" 'The Nitro thing is crazy. It's one thing to go head to head, but it's unprecedented for a network program to start a few minutes before the top of the hour and end a few minutes after....The world thinks the WWF is this big, huge deal and WCW is whatever it is. If WCW was competing on some equal basis, great. But Turner is competing unfairly....My work ethic is pretty strong. The amount of time I spend on Billionaire Ted is minuscule.' - Feb 17, 96 Torch, Vince McMahon interview with Wade Keller "Butch Reed beat Jake Roberts via COR after they threw the bag hard off the apron to the floor and Jake jumps out to check on his pet." - 86 Observer Yearbook "Vince wanted the Strong Machines-Cobra for the Wrestlemania show, but Inoki nixed it." - Mar 85 Eastern Wrestling News "Hunter Hearst Helmsley made his Raw debut but only lasted a half second before a commercial interrupted him." - Apr 29, 95 Torch "Dundee is the leading heel, and while good on interviews, is a terrible wrestler." - Aug 83 Observer " 'I had no resources at all,' McMahon explains. 'That first 250,000 dollars was advanced money. We had to keep the money coming in. We just began growing. Everywhere I went, I competed head to head with a promoter with more assets. Verne Gagne, Bill Watts, Jim Crockett, they were all very wealthy. They had more assets than I had. But what they didn't have was my chutzpah.' " - Feb 17, 96 Torch, Vince McMahon interview with Wade Keller "Rude and Flair continue to insult each other from time to time but nothing has come of it yet." - Mat Results Vol 05 No 06 " 'I asked Verne if he wanted to be bought out,' McMahon recalls. 'He and Greg laughed me out of the office. I can't blame them looking back given what they must have thought at the time.' " - Feb 17, 96 Torch, Vince McMahon interview with Wade Keller "Eddie Guerrero, the younger brother of Chavo & Hector is now wrestling out of Mexico City and from the reports I've gotten is just fantastic." - Oct 26, 87 Observer " 'If you're a wrestling producer and you're trying to improve your product, or if you own networks, the last place you're going to put a wrestling show is opposite of another show of the same kind,' McMahon says. 'By putting Nitro head to head with Raw, not to mention doing the unprecedented in starting it a few minutes before and ending it a few minutes after the hour, it shows they are trying to hurt an independent producer.' " Mar 2, 96 Torch, Vince McMahon interview with Wade Keller "The name Lance Von Erich has came up a few times in recent weeks. Lance, who really is the son of Waldo Von Erich, may be here in a month or two." - May 84 Observer " 'It is the efforts of a Billionaire and a Billion Dollar Empire to put an independent producer out of business,' he says. 'It is not just one product vs. another when they have all their other divisions helping them. If people would understand that as a premise, then they would see things from my point of view.' " - Mar 2, 96 Torch, Vince McMahon interview with Wade Keller "During Volkoff's matches, Watts spends the time with a social commentary about how the Russian people are waiting to find our weakness and take over our country and gets actually made at the fact that fans don't hate this Russian as much as he would like. 'Don't you see what they're doing in Grenada. They've got 60 percent of the world right now. They're Athiests!' " - 1983 Observer Yearbook "The Bruise Brothers quit after the Disney tapings after refusing to do a job for Stars & Stripes." - Nov 19, 94 Torch "When Mrs. Crockett presented the tropy to the Roadies, she called them the Road Runners." - Apr 28, 86 Observer " '"It's almost scary that someone like (Turner), who possibly has problems with lithium, mental problems, problems with religion, etcetera, may be in the power position he could be in at Time-Warner' " - Mar 2, 96 Torch, Vince McMahon interview with Wade Keller

Has Dave ever explained his reasoning behind putting Arn/Tully/Dillon on as a trio or clarified what years you should be taking into account? Because I see them and if I was a voter I would only look at the period when Arn and Tully were actually a full time team (Aug 87 - Sept. 88) whereas others would probably go from the start of the Horsemen till they left (Jan 86 - Sept. 88) and you know there are voters who most likely just looked at their whole careers.

Some Dave Meltzer nicknames I've come across so far Junkfood Dog The Huckster Killer Zzzzs Bore-Us Zhukov Kendall Winless Worth-Las Title Glamour Ghouls Anabolic Warrior Outhouse Jack Barbie Dolls (Young Stallions) Losing Lanny Skandor Snackbar Hectortron Scott LeDouche Slick Nic Volkoff Flabulous Moolah Andre the Giant Statue Midlife Rider Job Tones High Dosage

"I think you should stop referring to Outback Jack as Outhouse and the Junkyard Dog as Junkfood. It was funny the first time; repeating these negative nicknames week after week is more stale than an overused wrestling angle. You can evaluate a wrestlers ability without lowering yourself to the level of name-calling." - Aug 10, 87 Observer Letter "The sucker was scrambled but I could still tell what was going on. However at 3:20 pm I found a signal unscrambled so tough luck Vince. I really didn't find the show to be as bad as I thought it would be but of course I didn't pay to watch it. I don't think I would pay $10 to see it either" - Mat Results Vol 03 No 09 "Before the opening match, they had Hank Aaron present the Battle Bowl ring from 1991 to Sting. The irony of seeing Aaron standing next to Bill Watts was probably lost on almost everyone watching." - Jan 4, 93 Observer "The new policy states that WWF wrestlers will no longer individually be able to collect frequent flyer miles from their travelling. Instead, the WWF will assign them company frequent flyer numbers and then the company will collect for their own use the frequent flyer benefits. In the past, wrestlers have been able to save the benefits themselves and use them for vacations for their families, or in some cases, use them to travel to independent shows for work once their WWF stint was finished." - Jan 8, 94 Torch "For the time being. I'm having a one month moratorium on nicknames (at least derogatory nicknames). If you have a strong opinion one way or the other on the nickname issue, drop me a note by 8/22. The majority rules in this case." - Aug 24, 87 Observer "Cousin Junior beat Ox Baker via DQ in a bout I'm told was worse than Baba vs. Raja Lion." - Feb 1, 88 Observer "Remember how upset the wrestlers were with Vince McMahon for retracting their privilege of keeping their frequent flyer bonus miles? Before the tapings last week, they were telling each other how they were going to stick together and stand up to McMahon. At the meeting, McMahon didn't bring up the subject and no one spoke up on their own." - Jan 29, 94 Torch "They taped a Barry Windham vs. Tully Blanchard match for the Western States Title which wasn't any good from what I was told. I'm told fans lost all their interest because it was one of those slow-paced matches which went 27:00....Blanchard went to a 20:00 draw with Ron Garvin (very slow-paced)....Flair pinned Hayes in 13:00 (slow-paced and even though Flair is never bad, it was okay at best)....Windham double count out Barbarian (slow paced but good)...." - Jan 25, 88 Observer "Slater would have been unmasked as the Gorilla on TV but a few weeks into the angle Slater and Crockett had not settled on Dick's salary. They could not have unmasked him as the Gorilla only for him to go to the WWF a week later." - May 85 International Wrestling News "Don't stop using nicknames. I think they are cute, not derogatory at all. My friends and I have always called Buddy Rose 'Bloody Nose' and The Freebirds 'The Fleabirds' etc....Besides, guys like Hulk Ho-hum, the Dog or Jack aren't such great workers that they command all this respect." - Aug 24, 87 Observer Letter "At IYH and the following TV tapings, two groups of wrestlers wore identifiable clothes to set themselves apart from others and show unity with each other. A group led by Undertaker including Yokozuna, Fatu, Duke Droese, and Owen Hart all wore black BSK caps. A group led by The Smoking Gunns, British Bulldog, and Dustin Rhodes all wore red handkerchiefs. Some played it down as just meaningless fashion statements. Others compared it to "gang colors" and said the wrestlers were sending a signal to management that if you mess with one of them, you mess with all of them." - Dec 23, 95 Torch "In the prelims was a guy called The Mandingo Warrior which is certainly original" - Sept. 28, 87 Observer "The reason the WWF is showing footage of pretaped Raws a week before the matches air is to take away WCW's steam when making a big deal about Nitro being live. The WWF doesn't want to come across as if they are either deceitful or ashamed of being pre-taped. McMahon's verbal reason to wrestlers is that it makes Raw like 'Melrose Place' where they show footage of next week's show at the end of each week's program." - Sept. 30, 95 Torch "Rick Steiner actually had a major bicep tear suffered in the locker room when he was horsing around with Williams and Hawk." - Jan 11, 88 Observer "Tatum attempted to hit Freda with the chair, but Sutton had her in his arms and refused to let go. So, Tatum destroyed a wooden chair on his back and Sutton fell onto the pig. The pig then ran around squealing like crazy until one of the security staff captured it. There was talk in the crowd that if an animal rights group saw the way the pig was treated, the angle would be ceased immediately. There are a lot of complaints by the fans, too. Freda relieved herself, once again, in the middle of the ring. It's become the standard symbolism for the GWF." - July 4, 93 Torch "The balloting regarding the usage of nicknames in this publication has been running about six-to-one in favor of keeping the nicknames, so unless there is an incredible last minute change, you can expect to see nicknames back next week." - Aug 31, 87 Observer

"Greg Valentine starts here on 12/1 and will be pushed as one of the major heels on the circuit." - Oct 26, 87 Observer "The alliance between Crockett and Watts has erupted into all-out warfare, it seems Watts has set his sights on Kansas City and that pissed off Crockett enough to remove his guys from the 8-9 Superdome card which has since been cancelled." - June-July 86 International Wrestling News "ECW wrestlers were called last week and told their last paychecks would not be clearing, but that a new account was opened and checks were being immediately reissued. Some checks did clear before the account was changed. Heyman told the wrestlers his wallet and checkbook were stolen from his car in Manhatten so he closed the checking account and opened a new one. Checks were reissued within days and all checks cleared. Some of the reissued checks had some money added on to make up for any inconvenience." - Oct 14, 95 Torch "Greg Valentine may stay with Titan after all, got conflicting reports here." - Nov 2, 87 Observer "The con goes something like this: Find a rich, jock-sniffing fan who reads the newsletters and thinks he can bring back the wrestling of his childhood. It helps immensely if this rich mark is an inveterate ham and secretly wants to be a big wrestling star. He should have some money, but not so much that he has any savvy about paying the tab for all of the expenses or will ask questions about when or how money will start flowing into the business instead of just out....Then actually feature the money guy as the focus. Have every heel talk about him incessantly. Put him on camera at every opportunity, 'suspending and fining' bad buys, providing inept color commentary, or getting jumped by wrestlers when he won't back down....Obviously, the posterboy for this con, I mean, game, was going to be Eddie Gilbert, but his behavior has become so erratic that he was last seen turning himself babyface, and 'retiring' so he could sell his old clothes to his adoring public before calling up whatever is left of the NWA board to pitch himself as their new NWA champion." - Oct 2, 93 Torch, Bruce Mitchell Column "Freddy Miller says he will sue Ann Gunkel if she doesn't quit using his voice, but you can't get blood out of a turnip." - Mat Results Vol 04 No 02 "The last word I've got on Valentine is this. Crockett beleives he has Valentine starting 12/1. The folks at Titan believe Valentine is on the verge of renewing his contract, so my guess is he's playing them against them each other which is the intelligent thing to do. I was also told Valentine would earn as much working for Crockett as he did with Titan, and no doubt would be pushed harder with Crockett....FLASH II: Valentine definitely staying with Titan." - Nov 9, 87 Observer "A form the WWF sends to former subscribers of WWF Magazine encouraging them to resubscribe has a photo of the Nasty Boys and Joey Marella on it." - Nov 5, 94 Torch "Warlord beat former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ron Garvin via count out when Garvin was outside fighting with Jones who held Garvin's leg as he tried to get back in." - Jan 4, 88 Observer "Ever since Lex Luger's huge push this summer, Hennig has been especially uncooperative, perhaps out of jealousy. He even refused to wear red, white, and blue wrist bands to the ring in support of Luger during TV angles. Even the finicky Steiners cooperated with that request. Hennig's reason? 'I'm not putting anybody else over' " - Nov 13, 93 Torch "You'll love this story. D.J. Peterson had given his notice sometime in November that he'd leave AWA at the end of the month, and on Thanksgiving they scheduled a match where Peterson was to wrestle Kevin Kelly and if Peterson lost, he'd leave town and if Kelly lost, then Peterson would get Madusa for 30 days. So what did they do? They had Peterson win!" - Jan 4, 88 Observer "WCW WorldWide has replaced WWF Wrestling Challenge in Indianapolis. When Gene Okerlund announced that last weekend's program was the last in that market, he said a new wrestling show would replace it. He said that the timeslot would probably be a good time to mow your lawn, but quickly added that he was kidding." - July 12, 93 Torch "Liger used a released german suplex and followed with a dragon screw (and boy did the announcing go to Hell when Tenay called that move)." - Jan 6, 97 Observer "Another guy, Crockett's front man Paul Heyman, who talks a good game - something about an unlikely youth-oriented Dr. Dre/Dan Cortez/MTV/Howard Stern pro wrestling hybrid. Heyman, of course, has had overchronicled blow-ups with every management team he has ever worked for. On the shows he has promoted so far, he has brought out the same old Texas retreads, Titan castoffs, and pals that everyone else has. And whatever happened to all of that gaga about High Definition Television? No one works the Torch better than ol' Paul E. Remember the quote about how much he could learn from AAA's Antonio Pena? Heyman neglected to mention he was in L.A. the night of AAA's big show, knew full well the show would sell out, and blew it off anyway to go out partying." - Oct 2, 93 Torch, Bruce Mitchell Column "Brody was in the opener in Portland and Seattle because neither Don Owen nor Jim Crockett wanted him on the card." - Oct 16, 85 Observer "It was then time for Bob Armstrong to wrestle Christopher. Bruno came out and said that Bob had fallen ill and brought a doctor's note. They showed the note and it was a scribbled piece of paper that said, 'Bob is sick,' and it was signed 'Dr. Yankem' " - Nov 4, 95 Torch "Bob Orton was fired after some problems at the Calgary airport resulted in his subsequent arrest." - Nov 30, 87 Observer "Golddust's in-ring character will not be anything like Adrian Street, Gorgeous George III, or AAA's Pimpinela Escarlata as early comparisons feared. Once that wig comes off, he apparently will be as violently aggressive as any wrestler in the WWF, thus contrasting the supposed feminine side of his character (which has been actually much more androgynous than feminine from the beginning). In actuality, the basis of his look is supposed to be a living version of an Oscar award." - Sept. 2, 95 Torch

"The situation with William Perry and Steve McMichael is this. There was consideration given to making them a tag team figuring it would get notoriety and press, but they weren't going to work Owen & Yokozuna at SummerSlam. The idea was possibly to debut them against the Heavenly Bodies, since the Bodies aren't being booked and all four could go to the gym and put together a passable match since Bodies are such good workers. Talks broke down because Perry wanted a guaranteed contract and WWF wasn't willing to change its steadfast policy against guaranteed contracts, particularly for someone who has no proven ability to be marketable in this environment or be able to work, not to mention he had a weight problem his entire football career with a million dollar contract so how would he handle his weight for 20% of the money in pro wrestling, particularly since Perry had made it clear he didn't want to go on the road and only wanted to do big shows. McMichael, whose NFL career is over (Packers released him), was willing to do whatever WWF wanted to get in pro wrestling but wound up with WCW since they came up with a plan to use him faster." - Aug 7, 95 Observer "12-28 in MSG look for Albano and Valentine to turn good, probably as a result of Piper's behaviour at the Awards ceremony for Cyndi Lauper. It's also rumoured the Hogan will the lose the WWF Title on 12-28 to the Sheik." - Dec 84 Eastern Wrestling News "During an interview, Buddy Landel said, 'We've taken over this company and Jerry Lawler's mad because we're actually drawing money' " - Aug 19, 95 Torch "The originally booked Starcade card was Vader vs. Sid Vicious, Rude vs. Sting, Nasty Boys vs. Flair & Steamboat and Arn Anderson vs. Roma." - Nov 29, 93 Observer "Paul Heyman predicted failure for WCW going head to head with the WWF Monday Night...As complimentary as he was toward Flair, he also talked about Flair wanting to turn Alex Wright heel so he (Flair) can hang around Alex at hotels and 'pick up all of the 18 year old women who Alex turns down in hotel lobbies' " - July 8, 95 Torch "Joel Watts is now working for Titan doing production work with the television shows." - May 25, 87 Observer "Hulk Hogan has already begun to fuss over the recent signings (My Note: Benoit, Eddie, Malenko and Sabu) saying they shouldn't hire people who won't be built up as his eventual opponents." - Sept. 2, 95 Torch "Jim Crockett was elected president of the NWA at the convention last week with Giant Baba and Carlos Colon elected vice presidents. I believe they were the only three major promoters in attendance at what was basically a JCP company party." - Oct 5, 87 Observer "The Ric Flair-Arn Anderson feud isn't going to feature a long-running series of bouts between the two of them. Shortly after breaking up with Flair, Anderson will form a team with Brian Pillman, who is still a babyface. From there, Flair is set to wrestle Sting on the live debut of Monday Nitro. Sources say that Flair is going to 'prove to Arn' he doesn't have to cheat to win by wrestling a clean match against Sting. Sting will be so impressed, he will agree to team with Flair against Anderson & Pillman in a Nitro tag match. During the match, in a purely coincidental parallel angle to Bulldog's heel turn, Flair, Anderson, and Pillman are going to attack Sting at the onset of the match and announce the formation of the new Four Horsemen." - Aug 19, 95 Torch "A deal with Mars Candy Bars fell through recently because of the Duggan/Sheik incident which may be why Titan is really trying to do something about its drug problem. Or at least problems with certain drugs." - July 27, 87 Observer "There are several ideas for the fourth Horsemen. Paul Orndorff wants to be the fourth Horseman and he's a member of the booking committee. Flair wants Alex Wright to be the fourth Horsemen because he's a big fan of Wright and wants youth on the team. There is also a belief that it would be perfect use of Steve Austin to make him the fourth Horseman." - Aug 19, 95 Torch "In three live Crockett shows in San Francisco, there has only been one match won by a heel. This week's show saw in six matches only one finish." - May 4, 87 Observer "It appears Paul Orndorff is now in line to get his wish and became the fourth Horseman (with Flair, Anderson and Pillman) when they reform the Four Horsemen. Steve Austin is still injured and they don't want to turn Wright, so Orndorff is the only other candidate." - Sept. 2, 95 Torch "Verne Gagne is offering any wrestler of any stature the chance to 'get over on ESPN.' If you pay your own transportation to Vegas for the taping, Verne has apparently told several that he'll give them air time to get over." - Apr 13, 87 Observer "Paul Diamond gave an interview where he revealed that he used to be on drugs and it effected his wrestling." - Mat Results Vol 04 No 08 "King Kong Bundy is now down to 350 pounds. He wanted to get down to 280, however if he did, he'd no longer be King Kong Bundy, so to keep his gimmick, he has been advised not to lose too much more weight." - 86 Observer Yearbook "The subject of conversation seemed to focus on Randy Savage's comments regarding McMahon's victory over the government in court. The comments were scattered throughout the program. 'Razor Ramon is going to annihilate Shawn Michaels just like you Mr. McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation annihilated the United States Justice Department by pinning them in the middle of the ring one-two-three. Not guilty! Not guilty!' Savage added comments throughout the show such as 'Almost a hung jury, there'; 'Shawn Michaels, not to be confused with Sean O'Shea (prosecuting attorney)'; 'It looks like the jury's still out on whether Lex Luger sold out or not'; 'Speaking of the justice department, as Forrest Gump says, stupid is as stupid does'; 'The best tag team in legal history is Jerry McDevitt and Laura Brevetti. I think I'm gonna date Laura in my dreams.' " - Aug 6, 94 Torch

They had Muraco and Orton come out in kilts on the same taping as the Adonis attack so I'm guessing they knew Adonis was gone for a while and his involvement in the beatdown was so they had something to go back to when they inevitably brought him back. Piper vs. Muraco/Orton not drawing at the house shows probably made his return happen faster though. Adonis post WM III would have been feuding with Beefcake before getting fired for "flagrantly violating the dress code," "Gross Misbehaviour" or "Unreliability" depending on Dave's WWF source. One of Dave's main talking points in 86/87 is that for all the time and effort they put behind pushing the "Adorable" gimmick Adonis just didn't draw at the house shows against Hogan and Piper.

How the Luger jump to WCW was covered in the Observer and Torch "With Lex Luger's two-year contract with the WWF expiring this month, his promotional affiliation is not a foregone conclusion." - Jan 21, 95 Torch "Smith turned on Lex Luger at the Garden, but instead of turning on Luger, turned on Diesel at TV and will be managed by Jim Cornette. That may be because Luger at the taping gave notice.... Last week Sting made a play in the WCW offices to try and get Luger a job and was successful enough that they were at least strongly considering it, supposedly with the caveat that Luger come in as a heel and immediately put Hulk Hogan over clean." - Aug 21, 95 Observer "Lex Luger is still with the WWF. Sources say Luger gave notice to the WWF, anticipating an offer to work for WCW. Sting, who co-owns gyms in the Atlanta area with Luger pushed for Luger to be brought in. WCW considered it, but then soured on it. Either both sides had a very different version of what his push would be (Luger wanted long runs against Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan) or guaranteed money or both. Luger wrestled house shows over the weekend for the WWF and as of deadline it looked as if for now at least Luger would remain in the WWF. His contract status is still not resolved as he hasn't renewed yet, but that is now probable. - Aug 26, 95 Torch "WCW was only offering $1,000 per match to Luger with no guarantee of number of matches. Without a guarantee of a number of matches, his WWF deal leaves him with more security. In addition, WCW didn't seem as enamored with Luger as to grant him the position of being top heel and going from top-face to top-face, and were more interested in him putting over Hogan on an early Nitro show as to establish WCW superiority over WWF or Hogan superiority over the wannabe Hogan that never made it and then making him one of the boys. Technically his WWF contract expires in mid-October. You never know but I'd bet on two things--1) a renewal of the contract; 2) Whatever decision he makes will be the best business decision for himself and not a decision blinded by ego." - Aug 28, 95 Observer "McMahon interviewed Lex Luger in the ring. McMahon explained that the reason Diesel hit Luger was he didn't know yet which side Luger was on. Luger said he understood Diesel's weariness. McMahon said, 'No one will ever again doubt the motives of Lex Luger.' " - Sept 2, 95 Torch "Luger was open with Vince McMahon a few weeks back when he flew to Atlanta to negotiate with WCW. The negotiations did not result in an agreement as the two sides were apart on money and his role. The WWF, which pulled Luger & British Bulldog from SummerSlam partially because of Luger's negotiations with WCW, reincorporated him into storylines at TV tapings last week because he had told Vince he would be staying. However, because Luger still had not signed a contract with the WWF, he was still fair game for a counter-offer from WCW. The WWF meanwhile involved him in the angle with Bulldog and announced Saturday that Luger would face Hunter Hearst Helmsley at the Saginaw, Mich. In Your House event." - Sept. 2, 95 Torch "Vince McMahon did an interview with Lex Luger where they acknowledged that Diesel had attacked him at SummerSlam figuring since Bulldog turned on him that Luger was part of it, but they said Luger showed his true colors by running Mo away from the ring. They built up a match for the following week on Superstars with Luger vs. Mabel (taped 8/29 in Erie, PA)." - Sept. 4, 95 Observer "In the dark match finale, Lex Luger & Ramon & Undertaker & Michaels beat M.O.M. & Kama & Sid in an elimination match. Ramon, Michaels, Sid, and Kama brawled to the back early in the match to be counted out. In the end, Luger pinned Mabel. After the match Undertaker kneeled and pointed at Luger as Luger posed." - Sept. 9, 95 Torch "Luger had been a focal part of the WWF television tapings on 8/28 in Canton, OH and 8/29 in Erie, PA, including having a television main event match with Mabel that was scheduled for Superstars on the weekend of 9/9 where would have been left laying after a DQ win by Men on a Mission and Davey Boy Smith. Whether this airs and the commentary track (which is usually put together in mid-week) makes references to the beating scaring Luger so bad he left or something of that ilk, or the match is erased and Luger is never referred to again is a decision that will have to be made. Because the interview where Luger issued the challenge for Mabel has already aired, they may air the match although it would air after fans have seen Luger on Nitro, so if I was to bet, I'd say the match doesn't air and they'll replay something from Raw to fill in the holes on both shows and Luger won't be referred to again." - Sept. 11, 95 Observer "Both Luger and Bischoff were claiming that Luger was working WWF without a contract, thus was free to leave WWF on a moment's notice. Why McMahon would push someone without a contract (a similar situation to Randy Savage) after the Savage situation is questionable enough. It's even more questionable being Luger, who it was well-known that just a few weeks ago was involved in serious negotiations with WCW for basically the same situation and angle that he ended up doing." - Sept. 11, 95 Observer "After a commercial break, during an interview Luger, who didn't indicate going either face or heel, issued the challenge for a title match with several not so subtle remarks about both the WWF and its title, which was agreed upon with a handshake between the two, for the 9/11 Nitro. Ironically, that was originally to be the main event on the 9/11 Nitro in an angle that first was supposed to be set up at the WCW press conference in New York, but fell apart because the money deal wasn't put together." - Sept. 11, 95 Observer "It also continues Luger's amazing streak of earning more money in pro wrestling while accomplishing less than any wrestler in history.... Smith didn't even do his major turn on Luger for fear it would hold Smith back as a potential top heel to turn on someone that the fans didn't care about...." - Sept. 11, 95 Observer "Over the weekend they made no mention of Luger including editing all references to him and things involving him off every television show but throughout the weekend hyped Raw more than ever." - Sept. 18, 95 Observer "WWF is claiming Luger has a valid contract with the organization through January 6, 1996. Luger has claimed all along he was wrestling with Titan for the past few months without a contract and thus was free to make the jump at any point. Apparently Luger, according to sources within WCW, is now claiming that Titan put white-out on his original contract and filled in a new later date in order to make this claim and that his contract had long since expired.... According to WWF sources, Luger's window to give notice would have ended on October 6, 1995, but that is immaterial because he had exercised his option to not have his contract renewed months before that date." - Sept. 25, 95 Observer "Even more strange about this deal is that in mid-August, McMahon and Luger had a meeting where Luger informed McMahon about the potential WCW deal and McMahon gave him permission to negotiate. Without Titan's permission to negotiate, any WCW approaches to Luger would have been illegal contract tampering and you have no idea how closely both groups watch their words in negotiations to avoid breaking that law and the ramifications because the penalties are so severe." - Sept. 25, 95 Observer "Plans for Luger were to have been working the next several months as the No. 6 singles babyface (behind Diesel, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Bret Hart and Razor Ramon) before a possible or probable heel turn in early 1996." - Sept. 25, 95 Observer Not related to him going to WCW but it made me laugh "Behind the scenes, the personal feud between Luger and Shawn Michaels has come to an end. After almost coming to blows a few weeks back, they have now made up and are hanging out together. Luger was upset, among other things, with Michaels's comments about him 'hitting like a girl.' Michaels was upset with, among other things, Luger spreading a bad attitude in the WWF locker room to some undercard wrestlers." - Aug 26, 95 Torch

"Steve Austin is apparently staying put in WCW. Not because WCW sees his value, but because they think the WWF will turn him into a superstar." - Apr 22, 95 Torch "Expect the UWF to suffer the same fate as Central States and Florida under Crockett. You can't make fans feel the local talent is minor leaguers and the big stars are in Charlotte and expect to draw when the Charlotte guys aren't in town." - Oct 5, 87 Observer "Alex Wright was originally scheduled to win the TV Title from Arn Anderson, but a late shift in booking plans changed those plans. Instead, Anderson will feud with Renegade for the belt including a title match at the Bash at the Beach." - May 27, 95 Torch "Bill Watts and several UWF wrestlers were served with a summons telling them about two pending lawsuits filed by World Class owner Fritz Von Erich. The first suit claims UWF breached the agreement the two promotions had involving the sharing of profits from cards in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The other suit is against 7 people now employed by the UWF (Freebirds, Link, Gang, Tatum and Hyatt) for breach of contract. They claim they are under contract to World Class under a provision in the contract which states they can't appear in any Texas markets for 6 months after they (the wrestlers) give notice of the contracts termination." - Aug 86 International Wrestling News "WCW insiders say Alex Wright's push is all but over now that Ric Flair is out of a power position. Wright was a favorite of Flair, but Hogan's camp sees Wright as a threat to Renegade." - July 28, 95 Torch "Bravo and Slater went to a 20:00 draw which lasted 11:45 (Johnny Valiant told the ref to cheat on the time because he had a girl waiting for him) - Feb 2, 87 Observer "Barry Windham has been fortunate enough in January to be attacked by the Four Horsemen, Lex Luger, the Midnight Express and Big Bubba." - Mat Results Vol 05 No 04 "Man Mountain Rock was scheduled to play his guitar and then win a squash. He couldn't get his guitar hooked up, so he apologized to the fans by saying, 'I was ready to rock the house down in Augusta' and complimented the people of Augusta. When the N. Charleston fans took exception to Rock's poor geography by booing him, Rock looked pissed off until Howard Finkle let him in on his mistake. Later Rock came out for another squash and the fans booed. He looked angry and had a bad match." - Mar 4, 95 Torch "You can label Starrcade 86 a complete dud. I never thought a Crockett card could be so boring." - Dec 22, 86 Observer, Reader Letter from Scott Hudson "Oct. 30 in London, a fan held up a sign that read, 'I've slept with Bonnie Steamboat twice.' Rick Steamboat responded by laughing and holding up two fingers, as if to say, 'Twice? Really?' " - Nov 13, 93 Torch "As for Adonis, whatever happened must have been serious because the big angle which aired this weekend where Adrian painted up Piper with lipstick was something Titan had been bragging about for months. I've heard two stories about this, the one repeated most often is Adrian was fired due to 'irresponsibility' -- whatever that's supposed to mean. The other is that Adrian is suspended and will be back in a month or two. Either way he's gone for now and the feud with Piper is off." - Oct 6, 86 Observer "WWF Mania on Mar. 25 acknowledged the arrest of Brian 'Crush' Adams. Pettengill said that as a result of Adams' arrest (acknowledging his real name on TV) on charges relating to controlled substances and weapons violations 'the WWF has sent notification he has been terminated' " - Apr 1, 95 Torch "Big Daddy's real name is Steve DiBlasio, not Steve Helwagen as I stupidly reported last month." - July 83 Observer "The most popular front office line of the month comes from Mark Madden on his WCW 900 line segment: 'The Three Faces of Fear are the most evil, diabolical faces to hit WCW since the two faces of Jim Ross.' " - Dec 3, 94 Torch "The big angle saw Adonis, Orton and Muraco triple on Piper and paint him up with lipstick and pound on his leg with a chair. All this is great, because it makes Adonis the lead heel on the circuit and he's gone." - Oct 6, 86 Observer "Correction: Taz won a shootfight tournament in his weightclass at Korakuen Hall on January 21, 1994. Last week we said ECW's claim that Taz won a shootfight tournament was an exaggeration." - June 17, 95 Torch "The gate for this card was $139,950 which is the second largest gate even in the state. The funny thing about it is this was, in my eyes, the least attractive lineup WWF had ever brought to Los Angeles. It just goes to show that my eyes are no longer qualified to judge wrestling." - Mar 4, 85 Observer "Retraction of correction: Tazmaniac actually did not win a shootfight tournament or tournaments in Japan as ECW stated on TV, so it was an exaggeration. Taz did win a match in Japan on Jan. 21, 1994. Although it was on a traditional wrestling card, the one match was fought in a strong style." - June 24, 95 Torch

Sam Houston getting kicked off Crockett's Jet for his habit of sitting on Baby Doll's lap making out on a sofa next to a grossed out wrestler is hilarious.

"Jean Paul LeVesque has caught the eye of WWF management who are said to be interested in signing him. LeVesque is thought of highly by several in WCW and is said to have a great attitude, although since he wasn't in the WWF in 1988, he may be an easy pick for McMahon." - Dec 3, 94 Torch "Sting missed both Fort Myers and Charlotte because he has a specific amount of dates per year that he has to work in his contract that they booked him in more than that number of dates, so he skipped the afternoon of the two double-shots. In the company's defense, they probably didn't know about this in time to change the advertising, and in Sting's defense, considering Bill Watts' comments and actions, I don't know he should feel any moral obligation to do anything not specified in his contract." - Jan 4, 93 Observer "During LeVesque's final match on WCW Pro, color commentator Dusty Rhodes said: 'He seems on the down road as if he might want to do something other than real wrestling, if you know what I mean' " - Jan 28, 95 Torch "Paul Jones is now dressed as a general and a few snips on his moustache short of looking like Hitler." - Mat Results Vol 04 No 09 "Before the match, our guardian of good morality J.J. Bins gets to play babyface and grab the house mic saying how Danny Davis will never ref again in Philadelphia--guess that's why Titan guys can bleed and Crockett guys can't." - Feb 23, 87 Observer "The next big card in Kansas City has Ric Flair returning to defend the NWA belt against Cousin Junior (if Brody and Sarge can't draw then why not use a WWF Superstar?)" - June-July 86 International Wrestling News "Jean Paul LeVesque cannot debut for the WWF for 90 days because Eric Bischoff is enforcing a no-compete clause on LeVesque's recently expired WCW contract. The legalities are questionable because it arguably prevents LeVesque from earning a living, but LeVesque and the WWF may opt to wait and avoid the legal expense of fighting it." - Feb 11, 95 Torch "Titan sent Davey Boy Smith a fax on Christmas Eve telling him he can't use the British Bulldog name." - Jan 15, 93 Observer "Sweet Georgia Brown came out and said she went to the store to get a Miss Texas doll the other day and pulled it out of the box and it was a stuffed monkey." - Feb 25, 95 Torch "TNT is in serious danger of being canceled by the USA network because of poor ratings. That's the real reason Vince gave up hosting the show, because he wanted it to go under with Gene at the helm." Sept 22, 86 Observer "The WWF has gotten stricter lately with what it will allow on TV given the recent anti-violence trend in this country on TV. The Smoking Gunns are no longer allowed to shoot off cap guns, Ramon can no longer flick his toothpick at the camera (seriously), and obviously garbage cans cannot be used as weapons. Apparently Lawler did not get proper clearance to use the can and there was legitimate heat from management, in this case McMahon, for the violent nature of Lawler's attack of Duke Droese." - July 9, 94 Torch "Dusty fired Brady Boone because he kept showing up at the arenas at 8:15 PM which is pretty bad when shows start at 8 and you're always in the first match." - Feb 17, 86 Observer "Savage's WCW run was almost stopped before it began. As late as Friday afternoon WCW officials were scurrying to get legal clearance to use Savage after Vince McMahon attempted to block his jump. McMahon apparently claimed Savage's previous contract had rolled over and automatically renewed itself and thus Savage was still signed with the WWF." - Dec 10, 94 Torch "From what I'm told, Sarge and Crockett were unable to cut a deal, and by Virgil, I can't figure out why." - 84 Observer Yearbook "In a satellite interview with Tommy Cairo, Cairo said he has taken up gardening. After some crude comments about 'eating peaches' he said he was happy to see what happened to Sandman, but wished it had been him. He then stuck a garden hoe pole in his eye and mocked Sandman." - Oct 29, 94 Torch

"WCW debuts at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 26 with Flair vs. Hogan." - Sept 3, 94 Torch "Vince has registered the names of all his wrestlers who signed a contract so he won't have another Sgt. Slaughter situation, of someone leaving him with the character development he gave them." - Mat Results Vol 04 No 03 "Hart got tired of Lance Russell's comments and dumped a bag of flour on his head. This was done to suspend Hart because at that point he was thought to be headed to Mid-South in a friendly arrangement. But he surprised everyone by going to the WWF." - Feb 85 Eastern Wrestling News "One Man Gang went to a double DQ with Beefcake in a hair vs. hair match (it was Slick's hair vs. Brutus' hair but since it was a ddq, nobody's hair got touched which probably didn't make the crowd happy) - Sept 21, 87 Observer "While doing publicity for WCW's September tour of Europe, Johnny B. Badd sustained an ankle injury. While participating in a practice run for the international version of American Gladiators, Badd missed an American record for the obstacle course during a dry run, so to shave time from his effort Badd aggressively attacked a cargo net obstacle where he injured his ankle." - Sept 3, 94 Torch "As some of you may have noticed from the Wrestling Challenge show this weekend, they are turning Ted DiBiase into a stronger heel. Fans were cheering Ted at most arenas and at the Madison taping, his first match (which was erased from the tape) saw him get a thunderous babyface reaction which caused a few short tempers to erupt. I don't think he'll be throwing money at the crowds like he was originally supposed to." - Aug 24, 87 Observer "In three separate intermissions, Chris Adams and Action Jackson made $5 a pop for autographed polaroids next to a WWF arcade game in the lobby." - Dec 25, 93 Torch "How come UWF and World Class still have Sting and Dingo Warrior running around in face paint? it seems to be ridiculous since they are both good looking and it hides their face." - Jan 19, 87 Observer "At the beginning of the tapings a local radio D.J. came out and asked the fans in attendance 'how many of you got free tickets from us?' which received a big pop. Certainly WWF officials weren't pleased with that question nor were fans who paid for tickets." - June 4, 94 Torch "Ch 36. in Atlanta, which airs both Deep South and Memphis on its Saturday night marathon block, edits out all the matches and interviews with Tommy Rich from Memphis which show him as a heel." - Apr 13, 87 Observer "The story going around is that Terry Funk left a note with Vince McMahon explaining his backing out of the Survivor Series that read, 'I have to leave. One of my horses is sick' " - Dec 18, 93 Torch "As for Crockett, I believe they have two jets (nicknamed the 'Stardust Fleet' which apparently upset at least one wrestler quite a bit) that seat around nine people each." - Apr 6, 87 Observer "WWF Superstars on Sunday aired an inaccurate recap of Royal Rumble. Todd Pettingill mentioned that Ludvig Borga had a great match with Tatanka, yet Borga was not on the pay-per-view. There were several other factual mistakes making the WWF look pretty bad in the eyes of viewers who saw the Rumble. Even worse was the Rumble re-cap airing on Superstars in at least one market on Saturday, before the Rumble took place." - Jan 29, 94 Torch "Before losing to Ron Bass, Lanny Poffo, in his poem, called Adonis 'a repulsive queer.' " - 86 Observer Yearbook "McMahon and Lawler hosted a half-hour call-in program. Several technical problems and unwelcome caller questions hurt the flow of the show. One caller suggested that Tatanka was the one who was bought out by DiBiase. McMahon almost froze as Lawler changed the subject." - Aug 27, 94 Torch "With the exception of Hulk Hogan, the franchise, Ken Patera is the only singles babyface with even a chance of making it as a significant drawing card, and to pardon the bad pun, the jury is still out on him." - June 15, 87 Observer "The WWF pulled some strings and booked Madison Square Garden for Nov. 26, the date WCW had planned to run an event there. The WWF had a right of first refusal clause where they had rights to book a date if another wrestling company wanted it." - Sept 17, 94 Torch

"I'm told that NWA-WWF powers-that-be don't look at Hawaii as a battleground, but instead as a vacation place where they can rest and coexist with no big deal." - Jan 85 Eastern Wrestling News "Toni Adams said she's great looking, but is an even better fighter. She said nobody knows what's inside of her. A member of the crowd shouted, 'Brian does!' " - Nov 6, 93 Torch "Chung Lee pinned Sam Houston (if you don't think there's pressure on Houston to go on steroids, read this result again and think about it)" - June 15, 87 Observer "At one point Funk told a friend, 'I'm the only main eventer in the country with a record of 11-107,' his only wins coming against TV opponents." - 1989 Matchwatch Annual "Jim Garvin and Steve Regal are now a team but for some reason are wrestling the Road Warriors. Doesn't make any sense." - Mat Results Vol 04 No 02 "Bobby Jaggers is minus his horse, Majestic Prince. He was pinned by Scott Casey in a San Antonio match billed as Horse vs. Horse." - July 83 Observer "Murdoch said Bob Armstrong's wife looks like Dusty Rhodes with grey hair. He said his son Brian shot unarmed Iraqies who were attempting to surrender during the Persian Gulf War. He said Brian should try to go back into the Marines now since under President Clinton's new policies, his kind are welcome." - Mar 19, 94 Torch "We've gone from the weekly arena show to the monthly arena show to the quarterly arena show to the biennial show in some areas." - 1989 Matchwatch Annual "A lot of people have suggested that Hogan return to his old theme music 'Eye of the Tiger.' That can't happen because the artists who recorded the song raised a stink about it. Bob Saegar did the same thing which is why Dusty can't use 'Old Time Rock N Roll' as entrance music, however ELO is flattered by Morton-Gibson using their song." - Oct 6, 86 Observer "Vader threw a fit when Terry Funk executed a moonsault, which is also his finisher, at Slamboree. Funk was told not to do the move." June 18, 94 Torch "The reason they did the television angle where P.N. News had his eye run into the ringpost by Mr. Hughes was because News had returned from England with a swollen shut eye courtesy of an altercation in a bar from Rick Rude. News couldn't beat Rude with both arms against one in arm wrestling and things got out of hand." - Jan 6, 92 Observer "Charlie Norris is dating the woman who plays 'Snow White' for Disney World. He met her at the extended TV tapings in Orlando." - Sept 11, 93 Torch "It looks obvious that Ric Flair will defend the NWA belt against Ron Garvin (if one year ago someone told me Garvin would be Flair's opponent at Starcade, or even two months ago someone said that, I'd have though they were insane, now I think whoever made the decision is insane)." - Oct 27, 86 Observer "Then there is the group that offered nine airings of Tony Atlas losing the ICW championship to Vic Steamboat." - 1990 Matchwatch Annual "It appears Thanksgiving is building up to a Ric Flair match with Ron Garvin where either Garvin wins the title or has to retire. They seemed to be building that up for last Starrcade as well, however with Magnum's accident and Nikita's subsequent turn and catching fire as babyface, the plan was scrapped." - Sept 14, 87 Observer

"Ron Wright came out with a wrestler called Abdul Hassan. Wright said Hassan came from Bagdad, Iraq and was here to collect the $20,000 bounty he had placed on Tracy Smothers. He said Hassan was Saddam Hussein's nephew and that when he collected the $20,000, he was going to use it to buy instant formula for Iraqi babies because the U.S. military had unjustly destroyed an instant formula factory during the Gulf War and the babies of Iraq had nothing to eat." - June 21, 93 Torch "Sunshine is still in World Class and is basically dust under the rug meaning you know it's there but don't feel like getting rid of it." - Mat Results Vol 05 No 02 "Mankind, Goldust and Undertaker filmed a sports related comedy show as part of a pilot with the people who did Second City TV. The gimmick was the three wrestlers were their in their wrestling personas sitting at a bar discussing how-brow subjects such as philosophy." - Jan 6, 97 Observer "Sensational Sherri was fired this week, just weeks before she was going to quit anyway" - July 4, 93 Torch "The Slickster (actually Slick) has debuted and replaced Fred Blassie as the manager of Sheik and Volkoff. Slick is a tall black man who reminds you of a pimp." - Aug 86 International Wrestling News "There was legit heat about none of the Freebirds being in the last top 10." - Sept 21, 87 Observer "There is heat on Lawler among WWF wrestlers because Lawler is the only wrestler allowed to use the house mic to get heat from fans, or "cheap heat" as the WWF regulars now refer to it." - August 21, 93 Torch "Ninja (Takano) was on trial in mid-November for allegedly hitting a fan with his nunchakus in Eugene in July. He was found guilty and fined $250 and given a suspended jail sentence and sentenced to do community service work. He wore his mask in court, although in court he was referred to as Shunji Takano." - Dec 21, 87 Observer "Tenay interviewed Savage. Savage snapped at Tenay not to laugh at him during the interview." - March 25, 95 Torch "In the dark match, Chris Walker beat Brooklyn Brawler via DQ. Brawler got the pin with his feet on the ropes, however Jack Tunney came out and overruled the ref and reversed the decision. This was done to turn Tunney babyface for the live crowd so they wouldn't boo him when he came out for his announcement before the Royal Rumble. It didn't work since they booed Tunney like crazy when he came out later in the show." - Jan 27, 92 Observer "Once again during the interview, Tenay yanked the mic away for the person he was interviewing when his time cue came even though they were in mid-sentence, in this case Sherri. Afterward Schiavone commented on it saying he liked Tenay because he pulls the mic away when the time cue comes." - March 25, 95 Torch "Bruise Cruise after all that advertising ended up with 170 tickets sold and supposedly WCW would have made money on that except they sent 40 of their own employees on the cruise as well which ate up the profit margin." - Feb 3, 92 Observer "Sensational Sherri was not notified of her firing until Friday, two days after last week‘s Torch was mailed. She plans to go to beautician school." - July 12, 93 Torch "Tsuruta & Yatsu beat Brody & Snuka in 16:51....Obviously Brody was by far the best man in the ring and he looks every bit as good as he ever has....Jumbo can be great when he's fired up but is lazy and not hungry because he's so wealthy." - Dec 21, 87 Observer "In the next Heartbreak Hotel segment, Owen Hart was interviewed. As he was introduced as a high flying force in the WWF, he tripped on his way up the stairs. After returning to his feet, Owen said beating Bret was not a fluke and that he would beat Bret again. The camera operators were laughing so much from Owen's stumble, the camera work may not have been strong. The next night in White Plains, N.Y. the Owen segment was retaped ." - Apr 2, 94 Torch

"On the Jan. 22 Power Hour, Flair defeated Bobby Eaton in a match taped in Orlando. Flair was accompanied by Fifi. Ten minutes later, Gene Okerlund plugged his 900 line saying he would say what he's heard about the disappearance of Fifi" - Jan 29, 94 Torch "I just wonder if everyone who considered McMahon a bad guy for running shows in other people's territory will now consider Crockett a bad guy. Neither is, or was, at least not for expanding into areas that want your product." - Feb 16, 87 Observer "Kimala has walked out on Dallas twice, Crockett, WWF, UWF twice and Kansas City." - Aug 86 International Wrestling News "It was amazing to see the crowd wearing all the NWO t-shirts cheering Piper and universally booing Hogan." - Jan 6, 97 Observer "Hennig's reputation is so bad that WWF road agents have worried out loud in locker rooms that because of his fast lane lifestyle, he will be a bad influence on 1-2-3 Kid, whom he has taken under his wing on road trips." - Nov 13, 93 Torch "Since November 1985, the WTBS Saturday show viewership has dropped 35 percent, the decline was most marked starting in June of this past year--or when Dusty went to his plethora of 30 second matches with endless interviews. The funny thing is, crowds at Crockett's live shows are better than ever right now. It appears when you have marketable wrestlers, but let them talk more than wrestle, it seems to be okay at the gate but turns TV viewers off." - Feb 2, 87 Observer "Jim Powers walked out on World Class without a word and didn't even pick up his paycheck." - Mat Results Vol 04 No 02 "The New Orleans portion of Starrcade drew 1,610, the main event was scheduled to have the Sheepherders defend the UWF tag belts against the New Breed in a cage match, however both Chris Champion and the cage were no-shows. Instead it was a regular match against Brad Armstrong & Tim Horner and the fans who were there were pissed off. They were supposed to have one hour of live matches before Starcade, but these matches were so short they had a 27 minute intermission before Starcade even started." - Dec 7, 87 Observer "The most talked about moment in the meeting was when Vader raised his hand and said what an honor it was to work for Turner. He then asked Turner for his autograph. The wrestlers couldn't believe it." - Dec 25, 93 Torch "Even though things appear hot right now for Crockett, unless they do a better job of exchanging and mixing talent, the current staleness will continue. The good crowds aren't a result of hot new angles, but a result of all the new faces coming in live. Now that most core cities will have seen them shortly, they'll have to do stuff with all the new talent to keep fans interested in coming back." - June 15, 87 Observer "Chris Adams was filming a piece on not drinking when Rick Steiner and Sting attacked him." - Mat Results Vol 05 No 06 "At several points the WWF seemed to be playing games with the 'illegal' (its really not illegal) viewers by unscrambling it for several minutes at a time and also by scrambling it too good during the main event tag match (especially towards the ending)." - Apr 85 Eastern Wrestling News "Even on the UWF shows, they've begun putting in those Rhodes and Flair videos that virtually everyone is tired of." - June 22, 87 Observer "With the UWF show on 4/12, Crockett booked Omni shows on 3/27 and 4/5 and a Marietta show on 4/12 to burn the market out. At the 4/5 Omni card, the ring announcer kept insisting over and over again that 'there will be no wrestling in Atlanta until May 1 (next Crockett Omni date).' " - Apr 13, 87 Observer "Andy Kaufman came in for the 11/15 and 11/22 shows. Both shows drew 3,600 which shows this thing is worn out." - 1983 Observer Yearbook

How the Arn-Sid deal was covered "The first stages of trouble started when Vicious started bragging about how he just held the company up for a major contract raise (reportedly up to $600,000 per year) to agree to do the job for Sting at the Halloween Havoc PPV show a few days earlier. Both men had been drinking and Vicious was apparently ribbing Anderson over the fact that he had just received a $100,000 per year raise, while Anderson had received a $100,000 pay cut (under Bill Watts, Anderson's 1992 contract of $250,000 per year was cut to a 1993 deal of $750 per night deal which should result in roughly a $100,000 pay cut)." - Nov 8, 93 Observer "According to friends who spoke with Anderson, Sid tried to break into his hotel room. When Anderson opened the door, Sid charged him with part of a chair from his hotel room. During the fight, scissors got involved. The fight ensued until Too Cold Scorpio entered the room. At this point, Sid was standing over Anderson with scissors in his hand, but quickly fled" - Nov 6, 93 Torch "The version attributed to Anderson is that someone tried to kick down his door and the kicks were so powerful the door was practically coming off its hinges. As he looked through the peep hole, he saw nothing and the kicks stopped. He opened the door and nobody was there. As he stuck his head out the door, he was blindsided with a baseball bat swing like blow from the weapon and knocked out." - Nov 8, 93 Observer "The other version was that Vicious asked Anderson to talk things out because they had a long tour ahead of them, and Anderson responded he was going to cut him up and chased him with scissors and Vicious was defending himself with the chair shot. At this point Vicious allegedly jumped on him and the two started brawling. Anderson reportedly told friends that the first blow with the weapon knocked him out for a few minutes and when he started regaining his senses, Vicious was on top of him beating his face into oblivion. Somehow Anderson got loose and grabbed a pair of scissors with a dull tip rather than a spike-like tip and stabbed Vicious in the stomach with them, opening him up. At this point Vicious retreated and went into the hall, where Anderson jumped on him again. Vicious was stabbed with the scissors at least three more times, with most reports saying they were in the stomach but those close to Vicious saying two shots were in the face and one in the hand." - Nov 8, 93 Observer "WCW p.r. head Mike Weber, who was on tour in England, tried to use the fight as a means of hyping pro wrestling as real, with his quote in the London Sun saying, 'It just shows that what you see in the ring is what you see in real life. These two haven't fought each other for several years and obviously don't get along. I don't know what the disagreement was about.' " - Nov 8, 93 Observer "Even if steroids are not applicable to this story and none of the items regarding walking out on tests are true, there is still no way WCW can justify Sid Eudy remaining part of the company" - Nov 8 ,93 Observer "Imagine, Stupid Sid on trial, in a foreign land yet. A bag search: he's carrying something, if not everything. Sent to the clink, U.K. style. He couldn't get a clean-cut decision over Brian Pillman with a squeegee or a sleeping Arn Anderson with a chair and scissors. How do you think he'd do against a half-dozen lifers looking for a little romance?.... An aside: How tough is Arn Anderson? I mean, blind-sided by a huge guy, stabbed 20 times, and still tough enough to mount a comeback and put Sid in the hospital, too. It's nice to see one member of the fictional Anderson family has a little gumption.... Fire Stupid Sid Vicious. Twenty stab wounds and slash marks across the throat are enough evidence for me. I'm no chemist and I'm certainly no detective—but that sounds pretty much like the trail of slime left by a steroid-driven homocidal maniac.... Since TBS's official policy is that its wrestlers will be tested for steroids and that those flunking will be suspended or released, and since Stupid Sid Vicious has not, to my knowledge, ever actually been tested or since the results were apparently ignored if he was, and since his attack on Arn Anderson could easily be perceived as possible 'roid rage, I believe that Arn Anderson could easily hold TBS responsible for Stupid Sid's attack and have a helluva chance to win a lawsuit. It would beat working for a living, Arn, and it would especially beat working for a bunch of idiots who haven't done right by you in years. By the way, this columnist's thoughts go out to Arn Anderson and his family. Arn is a true professional in a sport that knows very few these days. The report that Arn was in danger of losing an eye was, thankfully, false, although no long-term report regarding his health has been released yet." - Nov 6, 93 Torch, Mark Madden Column "WCW officials were saying in the office on Thursday that both Anderson and Vicious were going to be fired over the incident. Upon further review, Anderson will probably remain with the company. The question remains what kind of action will be taken concerning Vicious, who according to all reports out of England, was the initiator of the fight. Vicious told one person over the weekend Anderson initiated the fight." - Nov 6, 93 Torch "The wrestling community thinks the world of Arn Anderson and for years has felt disdain toward the way Eudy conducted himself, especially given his lack of in-ring skills and lack of proven drawing ability at arenas or on television" - Nov 6, 93 Torch "In a perfect world, Vicious would be unable to find work in the wrestling industry. He is not skilled in the ring either on offense of selling, he has a pouty, unreliable, egotistical personality outside of the ring, he is a walking media timebomb, and he puts opponents at risk for serious injury due to his style. Oh, he also puts fans to sleep and (remember this point) he doesn’t sell tickets." - Nov 6, 93 Torch "While no official disciplinary action has been announced, it is believed by several within the company that Vicious, believed by many to be the instigator of the physical aspect of the incident, will be fired and that Anderson will be retained." - Nov 13, 93 Observer "Did Anderson receive the benefit of the doubt from those within the industry because he is respected as a good worker and a company man? Is that fair? Sure, Anderson's track record is much better than Vicious', but should Anderson have egged on someone like Vicious, whom he should have known could snap? Should Anderson be fired, too, since as a locker room leader, it's his responsibility to set an example and not get into pissing contests with a younger wrestler whose character is in question." - Nov 13, 93 Torch "My advice to the WCW wrestlers who want to beat up Stupid Sid? Don’t. Don’t get me wrong. If anyone deserves that kind of treatment, it’s Stupid Sid Vicious. But don’t lower yourselves to Stupid Sid’s level, which is exactly what you’d be doing. Don’t sneak­attack Stupid Sid. Don’t gang up on him. Don’t lower yourself to that sort of cowardice and violent mentality that Stupid Sid Vicious is famous for." - Nov 13, 93 Torch, Mark Madden Column " 'I feel like we both should have been fired from WCW in a way because of the seriousness of the incident'....'when Arn came out that door I had nothing in my hands and no reason for him to do what he did. So what I did to protect myself, some people might say I went to far'....'Arn now is saying that I beat him up with a chair, and he regained consciousness from it, then stabbed me. That's a little hard to swallow' 'What was true, me and Arn went to the hospital over scissor wounds. They were Arn's scissors and he brought them out of his room' " - 1993 Wrestling Flyer Yearbook, interview with Sid

"Dusty Rhodes beat Lex Lugar (on his robe it's spelled Lugar and I figure he knows best)" - Sept 7, 87 Observer "Superstar Billy Graham and George Steele both won't be wrestling for a while in the New York State because they failed to pass the athletic commission's physical." - Sept 21, 87 Observer "Wendi Richter lost her title to Leilani Kai on the 2/18 MSG card. I guess it should be expected since Leilani and Vince are involved with one another and I do mean involved." - Mat Results Vol 03 No 08 "On 5/30 at a Titan card at the St. Paul Civic Center, after a match between the Hart Foundation and the British Bulldogs, the Midnight Rockers shocked the sparse crowd by coming out after the match and challenging the Foundation to a title match." - June 8, 87 Observer "Blackwell beat Brody on COR. Brody apparently got mad of Jerry screwing with the match's finish or something and decided to leave. Perhaps Verne wanted Jerry to pin Brody and this was his way of saying a loud no! The fans chanted 'Bullshit' loudly and in unison, showing their contempt." - Jan 85 Eastern Wrestling News "Thunderbolt Patterson quit because he wasn't happy with opening matches, David Crockett said he picked up his check but left his booking sheet. Tbolt has a shoe store with the money from the Crockett lawsuit settlement." - Mat Results Vol 04 No 02 "Lots of people cut Crockett down for taping in the studio, however Ted Turner wants it that way and having the two hours in the studio on Saturday is a whole lot more beneficial than not being on WTBS at all." - Sept 21, 87 Observer "Brody left because of incompetence in his opponents (namely Blackwell) screwing up endings and because Verne didn't want to pay the top dollar Brody commands, already having to pay Superstar, Slaughter & Warriors." - Jan 85 Eastern Wrestling News "Buddy Landel is the new manager of the Headhunters. He won them in a card game from Kevin Sullivan." - Mat Results Vol 05 No 04 "2-1 St. Paul Coliseum will be a TV taping for Pro Wrestling USA to be done in two sessions (afternoon and evening). Each session will cost $7.00 for 2 one hour shows. How's that for clipping the fans. This comes from the man who's getting rid of Brody (his best draw) as a cost cutting measure. It's funny how obvious Gagne's greed is isn't it? " - Jan 85 Eastern Wrestling News "Dusty Rhodes pinned Lex Luger (his robe now spells the last name Luger and I figure if anyone knows how to spell it, it's him)" - Dec 7, 87 Observer "Jesse Ventura was flown in to Atlanta last week just to dub commentary over one match - Bossman vs. Rude - then was sent home" - Dec 25, 93 Torch "Billy Graham and George Steele have been reinstated as far as wrestling in the New York state is concerned. Apparently the pressure was put on and since the bulk of tax money received for running the New York State Athletic Commission comes from Titan (and more specifically, Titan shows at Madison Square Garden), the commission backed down." - Oct 5, 87 Observer "Brody's first week in Memphis drew a $12,000 gate, second week a $22,000 gate and the 3rd week a $16,000 gate which means the crowds averaged between 3,000 and 5,500 instead of the sellouts I reported." - Mat Results Vol 03 No 11 "Here is the actual story about the firing of the Midnight Rockers. Apparently the head honchos gave a speech about what happened to Jim Duggan and the Iron Sheik and warned the guys that this sort of thing wasn't going to be tolerated. After the show in Rochester, the Rockers were behaving in public as if this sort of policy didn't apply to them and it did." - July 6, 87 Observer "The small crowd broke out laughing when Sam Houston was announced at 220 lbs." - Mat Results Vol 04 No 03 "Luger tried to get him up for the backbreaker and it didn't work out. Even though they pretend Dusty weighs 270 and Lex 277 it looked like an ant trying to carry a watermelon." - Dec 7, 87 Observer

The Traci Lords letters "John Carella of 36 Tardy Ln., Wantagh, NY 11793 is looking for a regular supplier of FMW, NewJapan, All Japan and WWC tapes and has Smoky Mountain tapes for trade. He's also looking to hear from fans of Traci Lords, Kiss and horror movies." - Feb 22, 93 Observer "John Brooks of 5947 Terrace Dr., House Springs, MO 63051 is looking to buy pre-8/91 Observers and yearbooks and Traci Lords videos." - Apr 26, 93 Observer "Louis Wolfson of 2727 Ocean Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11235 is looking for current Japan tapes and 70s U.S. tapes and has custom tapes to trade as well has hockey fight tapes and Traci Lords videos" - June 21, 93 Observer "Eric Rivard of 52302 Washington, New Baltimore, MI 48047 is looking for Traci Lords videos and the 5/3 Fukuoka Dome." - July 5, 93 Observer

"Just a few days after the death of David Von Erich, Hart comes on TV with the bad news to Lance Russell. The Bruise Brothers are dead. They even show what looks to be a clip from a tv news show talking about them with both of supposed death dates. A funeral, attended by Hart's First Family is then shown. I found it to be by far the most tasteless thing I've ever seen in 15 years of watching pro wrestling." - May 84 Observer "Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith may appear in Memphis sometime as Lawler returned from Japan with a poster of them and praised them to no end and asked if Eddie Marlin could get these guys to come in. Bill Watts is also interested in the duo, as he's asked a well-known video tape collector and dealer for tapes of them in action." - Feb 85 Eastern Wrestling News "Next Oakland show is 6/18 with Orndorff vs. Muraco & Fuji in a handicap match with Paul wearing goggles to protect against the salt." June 10, 86 Observer "By the way the $3 million Verne is asking for includes their suburban office complex, 10 rings and several cameras. It's also been said that if you have anything to do with Vince McMahon, Bill Watts or Eddie Sharkey then Verne won't talk to you." - Mat Results Vol 04 No 12 "The actual NWA power is the office of secretary/treasurer because he (Jim Crockett) signs the checks and books the world champion." - Sept 30, 84 Observer "In some ways I think JCP may be handicapped by Rhodes in going national, but at the same time, he's the guy who made the promotion so powerful it survived when the rest fell, and has the chance to go national." - July 13, 87 Observer "Kid-Smith are pretty high on Mid-South now because of the national exposure they can get on WTBS." - Feb 85 Eastern Wrestling News "Ole had TV in Cincinatti for a few weeks again, however he and the station management got into a fight when they wouldn't put him head-to-head with McMahon's local TV show. The station management moved Ole's show from its 10:30 PM Saturday slot, they moved it off their lineup completely." - Apr 84 Observer "Before Journey could get to Missy, a genuine mentally retarded guy ran to the ring and hit Missy. She went crazy and the cops finally got things settled and the script was scratched and everyone went to the dressing rooms until Missy came out with her shoe in hand and pearl harbored the retarded guy. Police had to drag Missy back to the dressing room." - Mat Results Vol 05 No 02 "Dundee was hit at least six times by Cornette's tennis racket, but the first time Chops got hit, he was pinned. Have you ever noticed that the bookers in wrestling often have remarkable recuperative powers?" - May 84 Observer "Watts' debut in Memphis drew around 3,500 on 6/6. The Fabulous Ones were booked for this card as well as a card in Jackson, TN. Steve Keirn was in Memphis and I'm sure Stan Lane was in Jackson with both telling the crowd the other Fab was hurt." - Mat Results Vol 04 No 11 "The AWA are very unhappy with the Roadies, especially since they pulled a no show for their main event bout 12/30 in Green Bay. There is some talk they would like to rid themselves of the Roadies, but can't figure out how to do it and make money. It has even been considered to put them in the ring with Backlund & Rheingans to 'teach them a lesson.' " - 84 Observer Yearbook "Titan doesn't bill cards as TV tapings, by the way. They bill them as Fan Appreciation Nights. In Salisbury the line was 'the biggest card ever, 18 matches featuring (every name in the fed) and so big the open will be JYD vs. Savage'. Fans of course think they're going to see 18 main events if that's the opener." - Oct 6, 86 Observer "Rose is probably headed nowhere because he was originally going to lose to Hillbilly at Wrestlemania." - Mar 85 Eastern Wrestling News "Rhodes' biggest success, so he thought, was going to be the month long Bash tour, from July 1 through August 2. Fourteen shows were planned, with ticket prices raised unreasonably high, $50 ringside and $20 in the bleachers. Rhodes was predicting the 14 shows in total, would gross $8 million. His wrestlers were thinking about earning $80-90,000 for the month, and with stars in their eyes, started thinking about buying new homes, new cars, etc. In all the tour grossed $1.6 million--or 20 percent of the original prediction. - 86 Observer Yearbook "The thing continued with the announcement of Jimmy Hart's new Fabulous Ones (the ex-Bruise Brothers) and a video exactly like the ones Lane & Keirn used to do, but only with Porkchop Cash & Troy Graham. The video was absolutely hilarious." - May 84 Observer