Mid-Week Report

By Bill

Right back at you, Russo and Bischoff.

Trivia Question: It's often said that Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna first met in pro wrestling school. Whose school was it? (answer at the end of the report)
The mailbag:
- Big Poppa Pat of The Patcave wrote last week:
  I watched the Best of Nitro on Monday and I couldn't help noticing a few similarities between the first Nitro and the, I guess we can call it, "last" Nitro last Monday. A few examples of what I call the "Nitro Circle of Life." I thought you might appreciate this.
  LOCATION
  First Nitro: Mall of America
  Last Nitro: South Padre Island
  Analysis: A couple of sparse crowds in a location with lots of free-for-all seating.
  FIRST MATCH
  First Nitro: Jushin Liger vs. Brian Pillman
  Last Nitro: TAFKA Prince Iaukea vs. Michael Modest
  Analysis: A Cruiserweight match...although the quality of the participants has diminished significantly.
  MAIN EVENT
  First Nitro: Hulk Hogan vs. "Big Bubba" Ray Traylor
  Last Nitro: Hulk Hogan vs. The Wall
  Analysis: Hulk Hogan vs. A big oaf wearing a dress shirt and slacks with a marginal amount of talent.
  RATING
  First Nitro: 2.9
  Last Nitro: 2.6
  Analysis: A sad day for the human race...
  Anyway, it looks to me like Nitro has essentially come full circle. Does this mean Nitro will once again win the ratings war, only to collapse again 4½ years from now? I guess we'll see.
- King Leo of King Leo's Webpage has some comments:
  Did you notice that the CNN "Beyond the Mat" review referred to "Nick Foley"? I did a quick check, and "Have a Nice Day" is currently the number 7 book on New York Times non-fiction best-seller list, and has been on the list for 21 weeks. You don't think that they talk about Mitch Crichton in the same way.
  Also what's up with the "visceral thrill" ? Although I'm a big fan of WWF wrestling, I don't get much of a visceral thrill, nor did I get any sort of mabelal thrill a few years back.
  Not only is Sid Vicious the "freakin' World Heavyweight Champion of the number-two company in the business," but he's the freakin' World Heavyweight Champion of the promotion run by C F'N NN, the same company that published the review.
  I also don't know if you've seen it yet, but the new issue of the WWF RAW magazine has an interesting article about the reasons that Benoit, Guerrero, Saturn, and Malenko left for the WWF. Part of it is available at http://www.wwf.com/pub/rawmag/2000/04/01.html.
  Not much else to say except that the "new" WCW had better be good with all the hype they've given it. I really hope we don't get another non-exciting episode of Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo trying to get themselves over.
- It's been a while since I posted a brush with greatness, so I thought I'd pass this e-mail from Ryan K. in Hollis, New Hampshire along:
  I met Ed "Brutus Beefcake" Leslie this weekend at "The House of Pain" (a piercing and tattoo parlor) in Everett, Massachusetts on Saturday afternoon. Brutus was signing autographs (for a fee..), and supposed to start signing at noon until three o'clock....
  When I arrived about quarter to one, there was a line already formed outside the door...I come to find out that he was having a nipple pierced, hence the delay!
  When I finally got in to meet him, I noticed that he had cut and dyed his hair blonde and had grown a "short" Tank Abbott goatee....he was dressed in a Zebra striped Zubaz outfit and was wearing a pair of sunglasses....
  I shook his hand and said it was nice to meet him, he said "Thanks, man"...Then I got gutsy...I said, "tell me, how can you sign Brutus Beefcake autographs dressed as the Zodiac?"
  He said "What? I'm Brutus, man!" pointing to the 80's promotional picture he had in front him...which oddly had him in the same zebra pants....He started to tell me that the Zodiac was a promotional character that came from the movie "Mr. Nanny"...
  I then said "I guess people were just wondering which of your names you'd be signing today?" He laughed a little. I got the ten dollar autograph job; an autographed Polaroid of him and me. He then yelled over to my girlfriend to get in the picture as well...which made her cringe. (She hates wrestling.) So we both got in the picture....and he let her hold his "candy cane" hedge clippers that he made so famous.
  I thanked him again and asked him about the HPW wrestling show on April 28^th in London, Ontario. And he kind of cocked his head...he couldn't remember what I was talking about. I said, you know the one with you and the Hammer and Tito Santana? And he was like, "Oh yeah...is that this month?"
  It was time to leave...."Dizzy" Ed Boulder was back in character.
For those of you who, like me, read The Cubs Fan's Worldwide report and were wondering what an "electric chair suplex" is, he gives this explanation:
D'oh. Should've explained that.
That's the technical name for when you have a guy on your shoulders, and you fall backwards. Not as impressive as it sounds.
Regarding this past Monday's Nitro, William W. wonders:
Last night right before I fell asleep, this thought popped in my head. WCW now has both Mike Awesome and Mike Modest...is there a Mike Average wrestling somewhere out there who they can pick up?
Speaking of The Cubs Fan, for you Worldwide fans out there, the official WCW web page has a special section totally dedicated to Worldwide. It gives you the opportunity to have your e-mail read on the air.
In that e-mail you send, you just might suggest that they give a plug to the reporter who's been covering their show faithfully for almost three years. :-)
Regarding Monday's Nitro, I was having trouble putting my finger on the difference between The Millionaires Club and The New Breed.
I figured that it must be age, even though New Breeders Scott Steiner (1962) and Shane Douglas (1964) are not that much younger than Sid Vicious (1960), Sting (1959), Lex Luger (1958) and Kevin Nash (1958). It couldn't be "franchise players" for WCW, because Buff Bagwell has been in WCW continuously longer than any of The Millionaires Club with the exception of Sting.
Then, regular correspondent Brad M. from Statesboro, GA came up with the definitive definition. Everyone in The Millionaires Club has been WCW World Heavyweight Champion, and no one in The New Breed has. Maybe you had already figured that out already, but I think it's pretty darn interesting.
What's that? You want my opinion on "The New Nitro"?
I'm going to have to go against the grain on this one...I thought it was pretty bad. I was pretty bored during all the talking, although the matches, what little there were, were pretty good, as the action was "old school".
But, public opinion has it that the show was pretty good. Well, that's fine with me, but if you've got to strip every title in the promotion to have a good show, how do you top it the next week?
By the way, what about the TV Title?
A number of people have e-mailed me about this over the last few months, so I thought I'd mention it here. If you go back and check out the Top Ten of the Top Ten Lists from 1998, you'll notice how prophetic Ben at UNC-Greensboro was. He came up with the idea of TAFKAPI!
This is the last you'll be hearing from me for three weeks. I'll be on vacation, taking a cruise through the Panama Canal. While I am gone, Wade will be minding the store.
The only thing Wade will be updating while I am gone will be the regularly televised results. House show results and the like should still be sent to me while I am gone. I'll post them when I get back.
See you the first Thursday in May.
In closing, I'm going to pass along an e-mail I got from the Cubs Fan. I don't know about you, but as I was watching Nitro, something just didn't seem right, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was.
Well, The Cubs Fan figured it out:
Is Vince Russo 3 months pregnant? And more importantly, who's the father?
Trivia Answer: Killer Kowalski

Mid-Week Report

By Bill

Back to DDT Digest