WCW Sunday {Pro} - Sunday, 10/12/97
WCW Sunday {Pro} - Sunday, 10/12/97
- You may have noticed that I didn't do any commentary on the death of Brian Pillman. I only saw him wrestle live once, when he and Tom Zenk lost the U.S. Tag Team Titles at Capital Combat '90 and I didn't follow his career. As a result, there wasn't a whole lot for me to say one way or the other. However, there are a number of interesting debates on other pages about such things as the appropriateness (or lack thereof) of Melanie Pillman's interview on RAW and the reports that the chants of "Pillman, Pillman" as the show faded to black were the work of a sound engineer and not the fans in the arena. You may want to check out some of my recommended links for more details if you were a fan of The Loose Cannon.
- Interestingly enough, The Washington Post didn't have an obituary for Brian Pillman until today, seven days after his death. Odd.
- Another interesting side note to the Brian Pillman saga is I'm finally becoming convinced of something that I have poo-pooed for a while. I am becoming convinced that the wrestling fans on the Internet are really starting to influence angles. It's obvious that many wrestlers cater to fans on the Internet at some level. The major feds and many independents have Web pages. Major players participate in on-line chats, and men like DDP have mailing lists. However, it is starting to shape the business. Some examples:
- Disco Inferno and Jacqueline. If there was ever an angle that was for people surfing the Web, this is it. Maybe I'm missing something, but I've never seen the background behind this anywhere except on the Net. WCW fans not on the Internet must have been totally clueless when Jacqueline said, "Everyone knows why you've been gone for six months..."
- Melanie Pillman's interview on RAW. It's been reported that the interview was Melanie's idea. She did it to stop the rumors before they started. Given how little mainstream press Brian's death got, this had to be aimed at wrestling fans on the Internet.
- The replay of the breaking kayfabe incident at Madison Square Garden. If it wasn't for the Internet, very few people would have even heard about the incident that happened on Hall and Nash's last night in the WWF. Again, now part of an angle.
- The Scott Hall/Jerry Saggs shoot in Shreveport, LA. This incident has kind of faded from the collective conciousness, but on a Nitro after it happened, Bischoff and Hall mentioned it and made it seem like it was going to become an angle. Anyone not on the Internet would have been totally clueless as to what they are talking about.
If nothing else, this whole thing is really fascinating to me as it counters the notion that wrestling fans are all "trailer trash". Obviously, we're at least capable of booting up a computer.
- If you haven't already heard, last week there was, indeed, the incident that I like to call the Nipple On Nitro. During one of the Nitro Girls dance segments, the Asian girl, well, she sort of, um, popped out of her top. Now, tallying the mail I've gotten since the debut of the Nitro Girls, she is the second most popular of the bunch behind Kimberly, although yours truly likes the blonde with the exagerrated facial expressions that purses her lips when she busts a move. Anyway, a few people noticed it and asked me about it. I didn't see it but I saw it mentioned on another page. Suffice to say, I'm sure that their tops will be glued on from now on. I'm sure someone will have the pictures somewhere, for those of you interested in such things. This is the kind of thing that makes live TV so cool.
My big question was not where to find copies of the pictures, because, of course, I would have no interest in something like that and certainly wouldn't have checked out the pictures. However, I was curious whether or not people producing the show were aware of the incident, and, if so, whether the film was edited in the replay. In my original posting of this report, I asked if anyone could let me know. Dustin B. responded with: "Hey, every week I tape the replay and the nipple scene was NOT edited out. I even made sure in slow motion."
- You know, WCW seems pretty intent on putting Bill Goldberg over. Now, I don't claim to be a booker, but I've got a great idea for getting Goldberg over. Bring him out on Nitro and make Glacier do the mother of all jobs to him. Can you imagine the pop that would get? Man, Goldberg would be more popular than a nympho in Leavenworth.
- If you didn't happen to catch the update I put out there yesterday, check out Why My Saturday Night Plans Were Ruined. As one might expect, something bad happens and the result? A lawsuit.
- Does anyone besides me have a problem with a man beating up a woman (or attempting to) on a pay-per-view? Just wondering...
- Need a good laugh? Check out this page. I was laughing out loud.
- E-mail of the week. Someone commenting on my observation that Ric Flair looked like he had cotton mouth during his tirade about Hennig:
Looked to me like his dentures were loose.
--Sean
- Another interesting e-mail:
Hey Bill,
Just caught the "Hailing From" addition to your page. I really like it, but I have a comment about the Taz question. When they say Taz is from Red Hook, I think they mean a section of Brooklyn called Red Hook. It's known to be a rough neighborhood. I believe Mike Tyson was from there. Then again, I'm not a native NYer either.....
Joel M.
Comments, anyone?
- Many thanks to Sean G. from Williamsburg, VA, making his autumn residence in Ithaca, NY for sending me these results. I screwed up setting my VCR. The rest of this report from here on in is all Sean. Look for Steve Raymond's Nitro report tomorrow night and I'll be back with my Nitro report on the 20th.
- Ultimo Dragon defeated Doc Dean with the Dragon Sleeper.
- Doc Dean actually dominated sections of the match, and played the heel pretty well. The crowd actually showed decent support to the Dragon, though as usual there were more tourists than actual fans there (or so the unenthusiastic thumps-up to faces/thumbs-down to heels would lead one to believe). Nothing fantastic, Dragon did a Dragonsteiner, his kick-combo, etc. I still don't know why no one has found a counter for that move in which Dragon stands on his head on the top turnbuckle. Half the time his opponent needs to help him get his legs up anyway...one of the commentators mentioned that Dragon used to hold the nine cruiserweight belts.
Larry: And we all know who holds it now...
Scott: Yes, Eddie Guerrero.
I was kind of hoping Scott would say, "Shinjiro Ohtani." That would have thrown people off.
- Dean Malenko defeated Julio Sanchez (I think, it was a hispanic jobber) with the Texas Cloverleaf.
- Again, the jobber controlled a decent amount of the action. Larry Z was having a hard time confronting the fact that Dean was making mistakes. Eventually he got ahold of himself, and nailed a belly-to-back suplex to set up the Cloverleaf (Dean, not Larry.)
- Renegade defeated Johnny Boone with a Powerslam or something.
- I only sat through this match because Johnny Boone had the worst pattern on his trunks that I've ever seen. It's hard to describe, looked like light lavender hearts or something on white pants-style tights with "Johnny" on the butt. Maybe it was just how thin and pale the guy looked, I dunno. Either way, with the exception of a drop-kick and a few punches, this one was all Renegade with Boone over-selling Renegade's poorly executed moves. No handspring elbow, even. Renegade was trying to garner heel heat by smirking. One of the worst matches I've ever seen, and I'm a big Bunkhouse Buck mark (not to mention the fact that I got a perverse kick out of the "King of the Road" match.)
- Brad Armstrong defeated That Guy Who's Been Teaming With Bobby Eaton Recently (Joey Maggs) with the Russian Leg Sweep.
- I wasn't watching this one too closely, which was too bad, as it was probably the best match on the show. Joey put up a decent fight, and Brad was having fun playing the heel (he was slapping Maggs around at one point and took a great hook from the guy. The crowd loved it.) If anyone cares, Larry Z thinks Brad's new attitude is good, while that Scott Hudson (I still want to call him Chris Cruise) lamented the way Brad has wandered away from Bullet Bob's teachings. Well a babyface Brad Armstrong may have worked well enough in Smokey Mountain Wrestling...hey wait, maybe it didn't. They did fold, after all.
- Main Event: Steve "Mongo" McMichaels defeated Jim Powers (w/Teddy Long) with the Tombstone Piledriver.
- I ignored this match while doing something else, but I heard enough commentary to know there was no shocking upset. To sum up, "Mongo is mad
and he's taking it out on Powers."
- Parting Thoughts: The main event was pretty much a squash, but not really a true squash. The other four matches were just plain jobber matches, with three talented cruisers (Dragon, Malenko and Brad) and Renegade getting meaningless wins. The really sad thing is that while the jobbers were allowed to look good in three of those four matches, the one match that went all one way was Renegade/Boone! I mean really, is there any point to televising Renegade jobber matches? Is this guy ever gonna be used for anything but jobbing again?
- And I can't sign off without saying I miss the commentary combination of Larry Z/Dusty/Cruise. No matter how awful the matches were, you could count on Larry having fun with Dusty, Cruise sticking up for Dusty, and Cruise eventually turning on Dusty when he said something so ridiculous it couldn't be defended. Those three made you care about matches like "Armstrong Brothers vs High Voltage," because you wanted to see if the bros could break that dreaded curse!