WCW {Pro} - Sunday 12/14/97
- {Pro} was pre-empted for the second week in a row so we thought we would give you our commentary on the current scene in WCW. As we said, last week's {Pro} was pre-empted. In addition to its poor ratings and even poorer interest level, we feel it was pre-empted to celebrate the fact that three wrestling birthdays occurred on the same day. Curtis "Mr." Hughes (1964), "Ravishing" Rick Rude (1959) and Sunny (1972) all had birthdays last Sunday. Rude and Sunny celebrated their birthdays in far different fashion. Rude had some difficulties with the law after an incident at a Marriott hotel while Sunny did an AOL chat. A transcript can be found at www.iwrestling.com/wwwboard/ messages/316.html. Sable will also do an AOL chat this Thursday. We mention this only because Sunny and Sable are four of our favorites.
- All the big days this holiday season are on Thursday. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's are all on Thursday. Not to be outdone, Stone Cold Steve Austin's birthday is this Thursday.
- Trivia: It is widely known that Rick and Scott Steiner lettered at the University of Michigan. What other WCW wrestler is a former Wolverine?
- Our contest this week resulted from an idea we had after attending our last Nitro. We discussed what we would say to different wrestlers if we were given the opportunity to meet them. One of Charlie's lifelong dreams is to have Ric Flair give the message on his answering machine so he would have asked Flair to do that. I, sporting an identical haircut, wanted to point to Buff Bagwell and say my arms are in atrophy, now that's what a set of arms should look like (in reference to a comment he made to Scott Steiner). I also contemplated wearing spiked dyed red hair and running through the hotel screaming, "I'm Terry Taylor" and "I respect you booker man." Our contest this week, is what would you say to any wrestler given the chance?
- Has anyone else noted that WCW's year end pay-per-view has a double main event (Hogan-Sting, Zbyszko-Bischoff) where the four contestants have wrestled a total of thirteen matches in 1997, all of them Hogan's. He hasn't even compiled a winning record. When Hulk Hogan is the most active competitor in a double main event, the match quality probably will not be good.
- The WCW announcers were presenting the lights going out in the arena this week as a first for pro wrestling. Obviously this is not true as ECW has used this angle successfully of late. Previously, veteran referee Tommy Young had his career ended in late 1989 during a match in which the lights went out during a Tommy Rich-Mike Rotundo match. Also, a year earlier, Iceman King Parsons won the World Class heavyweight title from Kerry Von Erich in a similar angle (3/25/88). This is the second time in recent memory where the Big Two have copied a portion of this angle as Parsons had an foreign object in his trunks when the lights came on. Marc Lowrance speculated that Parsons was not that well-endowed when the match began. This is reminiscent of a similar stunt by Shawn Michaels.
- Recently we have discussed new talent in WCW and the way it is presented. We would like to continue that discussion by finishing with some new additions we recently mentioned. The first WCW newcomer that we would like to discuss is Lodi.
- As many of you wrote us, the character's name was originally slated to be Skank. This was prominently reported in the sheets and was confirmed by Kidman during WCW's IRC chat during World War III. His name may not have changed simply other than it being an obvious attempt by WCW attempt to capitalize on the popularity of British music group the Spice Girls. In addition an independent wrestler has used the moniker for at least two years and is the current HoPWF champion as well as tagging as a member of the Grungers. He defended his championship as recently as December 2. For more info on this wrestler, the NWL has a profile on their site at http://www.nwlwrestling.com/nwl_skank.html.
- Why the name Skank? Bryan Alvarez astutely noted on RSPW that Lodi is Idol spelled backwards in reference to numerous comparisons to the 80's pop star. This is also logical because reverse spellings have been a trademark of Kevin Sullivan booking for over a decade. In the early 1980's he used the name Nivek Navillus and as recently as 1995, he gave his fictitious brother Dave the name "Evad." Personally, we prefer the name SOIB as a reverse acronym for Billy Idol On Steroids.
- To quell some internet rumors, Skank is not Chris Candito or Ludvig Borga (Tony Halme). Also, despite striking similarities, Skank is also not Glacier re-packaged, although re-packaging Ray Lloyd would not be the worst idea WCW has had in recent memory. That would have to be creating the Glacier gimmick in the first place.
- Internet fans have universally rejected him prior to his first televised match. This is largely due to his replacing Stevie Richards. Thus far, Skank has been called a "3rd rate Stevie." Another fan commented, "That's like replacing a t-bone with ground hamburger." It is very difficult for a man to assume a character that wasn't written for him, particularly when that man has a large an Internet fan base as Richards.
- His first performance did not help matters any. He exhibited an offensive repertoire that made Vincent look like Dean Malenko. One fan even suggested renaming a squash a "lodi". Raven's Nest did not even rush the ring to assist him, which the announcers attributed to the absence of the leader. It also did not help matters that of the sixteen wrestlers who appeared on Nitro, only two did not make it in the top 188 of the PWI 500. The other absentee was Steve McMichael who was U.S. champion at the time of the list and was just looked over. Surrounded by that much talent, it only made Lodi look worse. Speculation has been that Raven does not want Lodi in his clique and this may be a good indication that he will return to the Power Plant soon for some re-packaging.
- In a somewhat related issue, Raven did an interview with Slam! Sports on December 5th. It is at http://www.canoe.ca/SlamWrestl ing/dec5_raven.html. Lodi was not mentioned.
- Another new addition who is not as inexperienced is Bret Hart.
- Although it has been widely reported that his contract began on December 1, he has yet to appear. Speculation is that he is recovering from hand injuries sustained in his interaction with McMahon. Also his debut may have been delayed as he familiarizes himself with WCW's talent roster. In a recent column in the Calgary Sun he presented WCW's past and current storylines to his fans and perhaps refreshed himself as well. For the full column go to http://www.canoe.ca/SlamWrestling/hitman_home.html.
- Bob Ryder has reported that he will appear for the first time on tomorrow's Nitro and accept Ric Flair's invitation to Charlotte. This was confirmed on the Main Event yesterday. Although his status in the storylines is uncertain, it appears he will work a program with Flair. This is ironic because Mike Mooneyham reported in the Charleston Post and Courier two weeks ago that some of the animosity between Hart and Shawn Michaels stemmed from comments Hart made concerning Flair several years ago. Hart retracted those statements in a Prodigy interview last Sunday. That transcript can be found at http://www.1wrestling.com/brethart.htm.
- At the Knoxville Nitro we discussed the dark matches but were unfamiliar with the competitors. We have since learned that Brett King defeated Brian Taylor and Bruiser Brian Cox defeated Volcano Kid. King and Taylor are locals. Cox is one of Matt Borne's wrestlers from Portland, Oregon, and is not Josh Wilcox as we had speculated. Volcano Kid's real name is James Anoia which leads us to believe that he is related to the large Anoia family which includes Afa, Yokozuna and the Headshrinkers. Also, the woman we saw Kevin Sullivan with in the lobby is his fiancee, Linda Blum. His wedding reception will be January 1st in Key Largo, Florida, and is supposedly open to wrestling fans.
- Finally, we recently discussed the entrance of Disorderly Conduct. They are not as new as we had originally thought. They are simply the Texas Hangmen re-packaged without their masks. While this is done generally to enhance a wrestler's status within an organization, this does not appear to be the case with the Hangmen as they have lost under both names. Our best guess is that they established a positive reputation on the independent circuit under the Hangmen name and may not want to tarnish it in WCW. They held the WWC (Puerto Rico) and USWA tag team championships (3/26/91-5/13/91). They appeared on WCW television as the Hangmen as recently as the August 16th WCW Saturday Night, losing to Konan and Syxx.
- Chris Jericho did an online chat this week for Prodigy. It can be found at http://www.1wrestling.com/chris.htm.
- We would also like to comment on the poor booking of the Malenko-Iaukea match on Nitro. Eddy Guerrero was doing guest commentary on the match and running Malenko down. It would have made more sense had Guerrero interfered and cost Malenko the match. This would have been three weeks in a row that Iaukea won and they could have gone somewhere with it. It would have cemented a feud between Malenko and Guerrero and Malenko would not have lost face. Instead, nothing came of the match.
- Trivia Answer: Harold F. Hoag aka Ice Train also attended Michigan. Evidently, having no neck is a tradition in Ann Arbor.
- As always we appreciate and respond to any and all e-mail. We have had minor difficulty with our server of late so if you have not received a response please re-send the mail. Until next week, remember our motto: We watch {Pro} so you don't have to.
Actually, the canceled {Pro} from last week was shown in a few markets in syndication. Michael Gonda from North Carolina State University and The American Male were both nice enough to send results in. Seeing as no one in their right mind will read two {Pro} reports on the same show, I combined their reports into one report:
- Johnny Swinger pins Mike Rapada following a swinging neckbreaker.
- Lizmark Jr. and Hector Garza defeat Mike Nova and Bradley Cain after Garza pinned Nova with his backflip moonsault after an elevated dropkick.
- Kendall Windham pins Chavo Guerrero Jr. with following a "Mulligan" gourdbuster (brainbuster).
- Mark Starr and Jerry Flynn defeat the Southern Posse after Starr puts Rick Thames (the non-hairy Posse member) on his shoulders and Flynn hits him with a spinning kick.
- Steve Regal pins Fit Finley after a back suplex cradle. After the match, Finley beats on Regal for awhile. (They make Benoit job to Finley, but don't make Regal?)
- All matches were of **-*** star qauality averaging about 4 minutes each. The jobber vs jobber matches were even better then some main event matches I've seen.