PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 November 17, 1997

It will go down in history as the single most famous finish of a pro wrestling match in the modern era. Twenty or 30 years from now this story, more than any famous wrestler jumping promotions, more than any prominent death, and more than any record setting house, will be remembered vividly by all who watched it live, and remembered as legendary from all who hear about it later. Through the magic of videotape, the last minute of this match will live forever, and be replayed literally millions of times by tens of thousands of people all looking for the most minute pieces of detail to this strange puzzle. But the story of what led to those few seconds starts more than one year ago, far more reminiscent of the dirty con man past of the industry than the current attempted facade of a multi-million dollar corporate above board image those in the industry like to portray outwardly that it has evolved into.

October 20, 1996 - Bret Hart was in a hotel room in San Jose, CA, hours from making the biggest decision of his life--who would win the biggest bidding war in the history of pro wrestling. He had pretty well leaned toward staying with the World Wrestling Federation despite a much larger offer from World Championship Wrestling, but had changed his mind a few times over the previous two weeks as each side presented new offers. In the waning hours, Eric Bischoff and Kevin Nash were trying to convince him to change his mind and how great life was with an easier schedule. Bischoff was offering big money and a shot at becoming a movie star, a goal Hart had been pursuing while on a semi-retirement from wrestling since dropping the title to Shawn Michaels a few months earlier at Wrestlemania. Vince McMahon was offering him, in the now immortal words of Arn Anderson, not just a spot, but the top spot in the company, the chance to be a major part of deciding the future direction of the company, and almost literally, to be WWF 4 life. Many close advisers of Hart's tried to tell him going to WCW was the best move for his present, and more importantly, his future after wrestling. But largely out of loyalty, and that obviously wasn't the only factor involved, he declined the offer. McMahon, determined not to lose a very public fight, offered him the famous 20-year contract where he'd, after retirement in about three years, become almost a first lieutenant when it came to the booking process. Hart would earn somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.5 million per year as an active wrestler, and a healthy but far lesser figure working the front office for the 17 years after retirement as an active wrestler. As part of McMahon's offer, he also was going to allow Hart to explain live on television his decision making process should be sign with WCW. Hart flew to Fort Wayne, IN, where the WWF was holding its live Raw taping after having already verbally agreed to the deal, signed the contract, and gave the interview saying basically that he would be in the WWF forever, figuring to be positioned as the top babyface and perennial champion until he finished his active career riding off in the sunset in a blaze of glory, like Hogan, Savage, and the rest of the superstars before him didn't. As is the case in wrestling, not all the promised scenarios that everyone believed were going to happen transpire as originally planned. And just over one year later, the feelings between McMahon and Hart had taken a 180 degree turn, to the degree nobody would have ever believed.

*****

March 10, 1997 - Top babyface didn't last long as McMahon asked him to turn heel. At first Hart balked at the idea but after three days, McMahon presented him with two lists. One list was his prospective opponents as a babyface--Vader, Mankind and Steve Austin. The other list was his prospective opponents as a heel, Undertaker, Michaels and Austin. Hart agreed for drawing money, his opponents as a heel made up a better list, and he and McMahon agreed that he would turn back babyface over the last few months of his contract and end his career on a positive note. He and Steve Austin did the double-turn at Wrestlemania. Hart himself then came up with the Anti-American angle, where he would remain a babyface in Canada and Europe and do interviews that would for the most part speak the truth, so he could when the time came to turn back in the U.S., have a reasonable explanation.

September 8, 1997 - Vince McMahon and Bret Hart had their first meeting where McMahon seriously approached Hart about his contract. About three months earlier, McMahon had told Hart that the company was in bad financial straights and that they might have to defer some of the money until later in the contract. This time his approach was more point blank. He wanted to cut Hart's regular salary, around $30,000 per week, more than in half and defer the rest of the money until later in the contract period when hopefully the company would be in better shape financially. Hart declined the suggestion, because he didn't want to risk not getting the money in the future after he was through taking all the bumps.

September 20, 1997 - About one hour before the beginning of the PPV show in Birmingham, England, McMahon approached Davey Boy Smith and asked him to put over Shawn Michaels that night for the European title. Smith was apparently shocked, having been told all along in the build-up of the show, that Michaels was going to do a job for him, since Europe was promised to be "his territory." The explanation, which made and still makes logical business sense, is that they wanted to build for a bigger show, a second PPV from Smith's former home town of Manchester, England, where Smith would regain the title--the same scenario the WWF did to draw 60,000 fans in San Antonio with Michaels in the other role working a program with Sycho Sid. So while it all made sense, it was rather strange he wasn't approached with this idea until just before the start of the show. At around this same time period, McMahon approached Hart about working with Michaels. Hart said that he had a problem with that since Michaels had still never really apologized to him for the Sunny days comment, and said it would be hard to trust somebody like that in the ring and due to their past, and told McMahon that he would figure that Michaels would have the same concerns, since a few weeks earlier after first making it clear he would never work with anyone in the Hart Foundation, Michaels had finally agreed to work only with Smith, saying he couldn't trust Bret or Owen.

September 22, 1997 - On the day of the Raw taping at Madison Square Garden, McMahon told Bret Hart flat out that they were going to intentionally breach his contract because they couldn't afford the deal. He told a shocked Hart that he should go to World Championship Wrestling and make whatever deal he could with that group. "I didn't feel comfortable doing it," Hart said of the suggestion. "I feel like an old prisoner in a prison where I know all the guards and all the inmates and I have the best cell. Why would I want to move to a new prison where I don't know the guards and the inmates and I know longer have the best cell? I felt really bad after all the years of working for the WWF." Hart had an escape clause built into his contract since he had so much negotiating leverage when making his WWF deal 11 months earlier, in that he could leave the company giving 30 days notice, and that he would have what the contract called "reasonable creative control" of his character during that lame duck period so that he couldn't be unreasonably buried on the way out. There was a window period for giving that notice and negotiating elsewhere that hadn't begun, so McMahon, showing he was serious, gave Hart written permission to begin negotiating with WCW and Hart contacted Eric Bischoff. The same day, during a meeting with Hart, Michaels and McMahon, Michaels told both of them point blank that he wouldn't do any jobs for anyone in the territory, word that when it got out made most of the other top wrestlers feel even more warmly than usual toward Michaels. Michaels later reiterated that statement to Hart on 10/4 in St. Paul when the two had agreed that for the good of the business that they'd work together. At the meeting, McMahon proposed a scenario where the two would have their first singles match in Montreal, where Undertaker would interfere causing a non-finish. This would lead to Hart wrestling Undertaker on the 12/7 PPV in Springfield, MA, where Michaels would interfere causing Hart to lose the title, as poetic justice since his interference caused Bret to win the title in the first place, and that Royal Rumble on 1/18 in San Jose would be headlined by Undertaker vs. Michaels. During the meeting, Hart told Michaels that he'd be happy to put him over at the end of the run, but Michaels told Hart flat out that he wouldn't return the favor to him. Michaels and Hart spoke again on the subject on 10/12 in San Jose, where once again Michaels told Hart that he wasn't going to do a job for him.

October 21, 1997 - McMahon approached Hart with the idea of losing the title to Michaels in Montreal, but promised that he would win it back on 12/7. Hart, remembering his conversations where Michaels was adamant about not doing any more jobs in the territory, was reluctant, saying after the way the angle had been done with him representing Canada and it becoming a big patriotic deal, that he didn't want to lose the title in Canada. He was then asked to lose to Michaels on 12/7 in Springfield, MA. Hart told McMahon that since Michaels had told both of them that he wasn't doing anymore jobs, that he had a problem doing a job for someone who wouldn't do a job back. He told McMahon that he didn't want to drop the title in Montreal. Later, McMahon, Pat Patterson, Michaels and Hart had another meeting where Michaels, teary eyed, told Hart that he was looking forward to returning the favor to Bret and once again talked about his mouth saying the stupidest things (in regard to saying he'd never do another job in the territory). Hart still refused to lose the title in Montreal. The night before he had been asked to put Hunter Hearst Helmsley over in Oklahoma City via pinfall due to Michaels' interference, but changed the finish to a count out. On this night he was asked to tap out to Ken Shamrock before the DQ ending involving Michaels, which he had no problem doing because he liked and respected Shamrock and wanted to help elevate him. The personal problems with himself and Michaels, which had become legendary in the business, resurfaced once again when the two and McMahon made an agreement to work together but to leave their respective families out of their interviews. It took just one week before Michaels did the interview talking about Stu Hart being dead but walking around Calgary because his body and brain hadn't figured it out yet. By this point, Hart had already stopped watching Raw because he had problems with the content of the show because he had four children that were wrestling fans that he didn't want seeing the direction it was going, so he was reacting to the remark based on the fact that his father and brother Owen heard the remarks and were upset about them.

October 24, 1997 - McMahon, before the show at the Nassau Coliseum, told Hart that the money situation in the company had changed and they would have no problems paying him everything promised in his contract. Hart told McMahon that WCW really hadn't made him a serious offer and that he really didn't want to leave but that he was still uncomfortable doing the job for Michaels in that situation. He left the country for the tour of Bahrain and Oman with the idea that he was staying with the WWF, but knowing due to his window in his contract, he had to make the decision to give notice by midnight on 11/1.

October 31, 1997 - Never one to work without a flair for the dramatics, Bischoff finally caught up with Hart who was basically incommunicado in a foreign land most of the week. Just one day before Hart had to either give notice or stay for another year, Bischoff made a huge concrete offer. We don't know the exact terms of the offer, only that Hart said of the $3 million per year figure that both Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler talked about on the 11/10 Raw, that "they don't have any idea what I was offered," but others close to the situation say that figure is "close enough that you couldn't call it wrong." Hart neither agreed nor turned down the deal, but gave the impression to WCW that they had a great shot at getting him.

November 1, 1997 - Hart had until midnight to make up his mind. He called McMahon and told him about the WCW offer and said that he wasn't asking for anymore money to stay, but that he wanted to know what his future in the WWF would be over his next two years as an active wrestler and that at this point he was leaning toward accepting the WCW offer. McMahon said he'd think about it and call him back in one hour with some scenarios. Before McMahon called back, Bischoff called again trying to solidify the deal. McMahon ended up calling back four hours later from his barber shop in Manhattan and told Hart that he didn't know what he was going to do with him but to trust his judgement because of their past relationship, that he had many him into a superstar and that he wanted him to stay and that he should trust him and asked Hart to give him ideas of where he wanted to go. During the conversation, McMahon still brought up the scenario of wanting Hart to drop the title in Montreal, but promised that he would get it back in Springfield. "I realized he had given the top heel spot to Shawn, but to turn back babyface, it was too soon," Hart said. Like in the negotiations one year earlier, it was going down to the wire and he had until midnight to make up his mind. When he was talking to McMahon, McMahon told him he could extend his deadline for giving notice. Hart asked for the permission in writing but McMahon told him that he was going out to a movie that night with his wife and said that he was verbally giving permission to extend it and to get written permission from the company's Chief Financial Officer. When Hart called to get the written notice, he wasn't given it because he was told he couldn't get it in writing on such short notice. At 7 p.m. Bischoff called again and presented a deal that, according to Hart, "would have been insane not to be taken." At that point Hart was really having mixed emotions. He somehow felt bad about leaving the WWF and was just hoping McMahon would lay out a good set of scenarios for him and convince him to stay. At 9 p.m., McMahon called and, reversing fields once again, urged him to take the WCW offer. Hart told him that his heart was with the company and it would break is heart to leave, and that he appreciated everything McMahon and the company had done for him. McMahon told Hart that he wanted him back as a babyface, and had been wanting him to turn babyface for two or three months but just hadn't brought it up until this point. He then presented a scenario to Hart, presenting it as a way to get Hart to stay, but obviously designed to get Hart to take the WCW offer. He wanted Michaels to win the title in Montreal. For Springfield, they would do a Final Four match with he, Michaels, Undertaker and Ken Shamrock, that Michaels would again win. At the Royal Rumble, the two would have a ladder match, which Michaels would win. On Raw on 1/19 in Fresno, CA, Hart would open the show and say that if he couldn't beat Michaels and win the title that night, that he would retire from wrestling, and in that match he would regain the title. And then in Boston at Wrestlemania, he'd drop the title to Austin. Hart looked at that scenario of four major losses with only one win and before his midnight deadline, gave official notice to the WWF and signed the contract WCW had sent over, with the agreement from all three parties that the word wouldn't leak out until 11/10 to protect the Survivor Series PPV. Hart went so far as to have his few confidants sign written confidentiality letters to make sure the word of his negotiations and signing with WCW didn't get out until 11/10.

November 2, 1997 - Hart and McMahon started a very amicable conversation with the pressure finally off and the decision for Hart to leave having been made. He again suggested that Michaels win the title in Montreal, and in what will go down as perhaps the ultimate irony, said they could do a screw-job ending to steal the title from him, and that the next night on Raw, McMahon suggested the two get into a mock argument where Hart would punch him, blaming him for the screw job. McMahon even suggested to hardway him (give him a hard punch that would either open him up or at least give him a noticeable black eye) to make it look legit. Hart again refused to do the job in Montreal, saying that he had never refused to do a job but he wasn't going to lose on Sunday or Monday (at the Raw tapings in Ottawa). He agreed to put Michaels over in Madison Square Garden on 11/15, Springfield, or anywhere else, and said he'd put over Vader, Shamrock, Mankind, Undertaker or even Steve Lombardi (who earned a title shot at MSG by winning a Battle Royal at the last show, but they dropped that idea almost immediately but there had been talk of giving Lombardi the match after all). McMahon then made legal threats to Hart if he wouldn't lose in Montreal. Hart talked about the clause in his contract giving him "reasonable" creative control, but McMahon claimed that refusing to drop the title in Montreal wasn't reasonable. The two argued about the finish in Montreal and the legalities of their respective positions all day Sunday and well into the night before finally agreeing to do a DQ finish in Montreal. Then in Springfield, in the final four match, Michaels would win the title. Bret would then go out on Raw on 12/8 in Portland, ME and give a farewell interview as a babyface to WWF fans and put the company and McMahon over as big as possible. He would apologize to the American fans and try to reasonably explain his actions as a way to end his 14-year association with the WWF on the highest note possible, something largely unheard of in pro wrestling, so that all parties and the fans could come out of it and his legacy with the company with a good feeling. Technically there was a problem, in that his WCW contract began on 12/1, so Hart called Bischoff, who when presented the scenario, agreed to allow him to work through 12/8 with Titan. Hart asked an associate who monitors news for him if he thought it was possible to keep the secret from the public until 11/10. Hart specifically asked about being able to keep it secret from one person until after the show, and the associate laughed and said they would bet a million dollars that person already knew.

November 4, 1997 - McMahon called Hart and said that he had changed his mind. He suggested now that Michaels should lose clean in Montreal, then he'd "steal" the title with a controversial finish in Springfield and Hart would get to do his farewell speech in Portland. He said he was going to call Michaels and present the scenario to him. By this point, word that Hart had signed with WCW had actually been reported the previous night on the Observer and Torch hotlines, and it was only about one hour later before the folks who call those hotlines for much of their news started breaking the latest "biggest story in the history of wrestling" as their "exclusives." In response, WWF Canada released a press statement originally totally denying the story, claiming it was simply propaganda being spread by WCW. However, as the word got out, Titan Sports in Connecticut a few hours later contradicted that story saying simply that Bret Hart was exploring all his options, but not going any farther, with the feeling that they wanted to protect the PPV show. Hart wouldn't publicly talk to anyone.

November 5, 1997 - The Internet had paved the way for stories in the Calgary Sun, the Toronto Sun and one line in the Montreal Gazette in a PPV preview story about Steve Austin, a line which resulted in the paper getting an incredible switchboard-blowing response of phone calls. McMahon called Hart and said that Michaels had agreed to the previous days' scenario, but that now he had changed his mind. He said the news was out everywhere and that Bret had to drop the belt before Monday because he couldn't have Bischoff go on television on 11/10 and announce the signing of his world champion while he still had the belt. Hart said that he would get Bischoff to postpone the announcement, but with Bischoff on a hunting trip all week in Wyoming, Hart couldn't get a hold of him. McMahon then asked Hart to drop the title on 11/8 at the house show in Detroit. Hart again refused, feeling the way everything had been built up, he wanted the match with Michaels, which in the wake of all the insider publicity was building up a life of its own like no match in the recent history of wrestling, to not come off as anti-climactic and for that to happen he needed to go into Montreal as the champion. He said that he would drop the title any time after 11/12, suggesting he'd do it at the house shows in Youngstown, OH on 11/13, Pittsburgh on 11/14 or in Madison Square Garden if they wanted it that soon rather than waiting for 12/7. Jim Ross, on the company's 900 line, acknowledged the statement that Hart was exploring other options, said that nobody knows the real story, and in hyping the big match, tossed in the phrase they'd be pushing in the final days leading up to the match--it will be their first meeting in 18 months, and most likely the final match between the two ever.

*****

November 6, 1997 - In a story in the Toronto Sun, Tiger Ali Singh, at a press conference promoting the WWF house show the next night in Toronto said of Hart's leaving, "It's very disheartening. He's not only been a mentor, but I've been a great admirer of him since I was a kid. And if he leaves, you're going to see a whole bunch of other people leaving. And I'm not going to mention any names but WCW has been approaching a lot of people."

November 7, 1997 - There is no question that the power of on-line services when it comes to influence of pro wrestling was established this past week. It was generally portrayed that it was a power struggle between Hart and Michaels, that Michaels had won out, and to a lesser extent Hart was leaving over the direction of the product. While there was some truth to all of this, probably the greatest truth of all is it was simply a manipulation by McMahon to get out of a contract that in hindsight he wished he'd never offered. Whether Michaels, who the wrestlers feel has McMahon's ear right now and has convinced him that what turned around WCW is Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, and not Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper, and that he should and the company should do what they did to get WCW over. There is also feeling among WWF wrestlers that Michaels pushed McMahon in that direction to rid the company of his hated rival who had apparently one-upped him when signing the new deal that made him so much higher paid. Maybe it was simply economic because the company is in financial straights. Hart did have a lot of problems over the direction of the company and his own decision was partially made based on that, but it's clear, in hindsight, that McMahon had a strong hand in manipulating Hart's decision to get out of the contract. In the vast majority opinion on-line from people who really had no clue as to what was really going on, Titan, McMahon and Michaels were coming off as major heels. The WWF's own on-line site, said to be the domain of young kids with no clue about wrestling, was besieged with the reports about Hart leaving and the so-called marks were reacting very negatively toward Titan to the point Titan pulled all its folders by the early afternoon, which caused another outcry of censorship of opinions from wrestling fans. Finally, McMahon responded publicly on-line with a letter of his own, stating, "Over the past few days I have read certain comments on the Internet concerning Bret Hart and his "alleged" reasons for wanting to pursue other avenues than the World Wrestling Federation to earn his livelihood. While I respect the "opinions" of others, as owner of the World Wrestling Federation I felt that it was time to set the record straight. As it has been reported recently on line, part of Bret Hart's decision to pursue other options is "allegedly due to his concern with the "direction" of the World Wrestling Federation. Whereby each and every individual is entitles to his, or her, opinion, i take great offense when the issue of the direction of the World Wrestling Federation is raised. In this age of sports-entertainment, the World Wrestling Federation REFUSES to insult its audience in terms of "Baby Faces" and "Heels." In 1997, how many people do you truly know who are strictly "good" guys or "bad" guys? World Wrestling Federation programming reflects more of a reality-based product in which life, as well as World Wrestling Federation superstars, are portrayed as they truly are--in shades of gray...not black or white. From what I am reading, it has been reported that Bret may be concerned about the morality issues in the World Wrestling Federation. Questionable language. Questionable gestures. Questionable sexuality. Questionable racial issues. Questionable? All of the issues mentioned above are issues that every human being must deal with every day of their lives. Also, with that in mind, please be aware that Bret Hart had been cautioned--on "numerous" occasions--to alter his language, by not using expletives or God's name in wain. He was also told--on numerous occasions--not to use certain hand gestures some might find offensive. My point is: regardless of what some are reporting, Bet's decision to pursue other career options IS NOT genuinely a Shawn Michaels direction issue, as they would like you to believe! In the personification of DeGeneration X, Shawn Michaels' character is EXPECTED to be living on the edge--which, I might add, Mr. Michaels portrays extremely well. The issue here is that the "direction" of the World Wrestling Federation is not determined by Shawn Michaels, OR Bret Hart for that matter. It is determined by you--the fans of the World Wrestling Federation! You DEMAND a more sophisticated approach! You DEMAND to be intellectually challenged! You DEMAND a product with ATTITUDE, and as owner of this company--it is my responsibility to give you exactly what you want! Personally, I regret the animosity that has built up between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart, but in the end, it is the World Wrestling Federation that is solely responsible for the content of this product--NOT Bret Hart--NOT Shawn Michaels--NOT Vince McMahon, for that matter. May the best man win at the Survivor Series! .

That only made the situation worse in regard to how fans were viewing McMahon and the company even worse. "You demand to be intellectually challenged?" By doing racial angles. The fans chose that direction? They asked to see Michaels pull his pants down and jump up and down on television? Hart was booked for his first public appearance before the house show that night at the Sky Dome in Toronto. It was on a half-hour TSN (The Sports Network, the Canadian version of ESPN) talk show called "Off The Record." Host Michael Landsberg opened the show saying the show had received more than 1,000 calls to ask Hart if he was leaving for WCW. Despite the word being out everywhere by this point, Hart would only go so far as to say that he had given his 30 day notice to the WWF, that he's reviewing offers from both groups and is strongly leaning going one way. "I'd like to really come more clean on it than I can, you know, than I have, but I have to do this thing by the book kind of thing." Hart categorized the split as not being a money issue but said that he and the WWF had "reached kind of a crisis or we've reached professional differences as to what direction that the wrestling shows are taking. You know, I'm not saying I'm always right, but I feel that some of the content of the shows goes against my belief in what wrestling should be, and can be." Later in the show he criticized Michaels, and then stated that "wrestling is often scoffed at as a form of entertainment sometimes, or it used to be. I believe it came way up, and I was very proud in the direction, which has a lot to do with where I am right now today. Wrestling was cleaned up, and it became something families could watch..." He talked about inner workings of the business, having to trust the guy you are working with because you give them your body and said the real animosities and hatred that exists have to be set aside. He said that everything he has said about Shawn Michaels is about the Shawn Michaels character, but said that Michaels has said things that have hit a raw nerve with him to the point it's unprofessional. The show aired the footage of the Shawn Michaels interview where he blamed the Hart Foundation for trashing the NOD dressing room and insinuating that Hart was a racist. Hart said that he doesn't blame Michaels for that. "That's obviously a promotional direction, and that's a poor concept. I think that racial tension is something to be very, very careful with. When you start messing around with racial things, that I don't like." Hart said that he stopped watching Raw about five weeks earlier because he didn't like the direction, and agreed when the host brought up Michaels calling him the Grand Wizard (a KKK reference, not a reference to a famous wrestling manager of the 70s), and then brought up what Michaels said about his father that he didn't see. "You know, I don't mind if someone pokes fun at my dad. Jerry Lawler's made a living the last two or three years saying comments about my mom and dad, but he's always fairly humorous about it. Actually I used to get offended at some of the things he used to say about my mother... until I realized that my mother thought they were humorous, and then it was kind of OK with me." He then spoke at length about Brian Pillman. By this point, in certain circles and particularly within the industry, interest in the match on Sunday due to all the uncertainty, some of which was known and most of which actually wasn't, had reached a level not seen in years. For all of Hart and McMahon's wanting to keep the story quiet, word getting out was the greatest thing for the buy rate. There were 14,374 fans paying $296,674 at Sky Dome that night for the show. To credit the huge house to the interest in Canada since Hart leaving had been reported in the local newspapers would be incorrect, as WWF officials a week before the event had figured on a crowd of 15,000. Obviously some fans knew, and there were chants of "You sold out" directed at Hart. Although this should have been expected, and Hart has been a pro wrestler for 21 years and been around the business a lot longer than that, the chants in his home country knowing what he was going through did get to him. The main event was a six-man tag with Undertaker & Mankind & Austin vs. Bret & Smith & Neidhart, subbing for brother Owen who was supposed to start back but still wasn't ready to return after a severe concussion from a few weeks earlier. Bret was asked to do the job for the stone cold stunner, debated the question for a while, then refused, figuring he was the only Canadian in the main event in the U.S. vs. Canada type match with the big nationalistic angle, and Austin ended up using the stunner on Neidhart instead.

November 8, 1997 - The WWF ran a house show in Detroit at Cobo Arena for what would turn out to be Bret Hart's final match in the United States as a wrestler for the World Wrestling Federation. Tensions were really high and the prospects of a double-cross were looming by this time in many of the more paranoid types. By really, this was 1997, and this was the World Wrestling Federation. That's stuff from the 20s when the real bad guy low-lifes were running the business. The days of making Lou Thesz world champion because you needed someone who could handle himself in the case of a double-cross had been over for more than three decades. That day, Hart went to the one member of the front office he knew he could trust, Earl Hebner. While there are what you call a lot of good acquaintances in the business, Hart and Hebner were genuine close friends for years. Hart said he'd use his influence to get Hebner to referee the match because he wanted someone in the ring that he could trust. Hebner said he understood the situation, and told Hart, "I swear on my kids lives that I'd quit my job before double-crossing you." On a personal basis a little more than 24 hours later, remembrance of that conversation crushed him more than anything. At about the same time, the WWF braintrust was in Montreal one day early. Vince McMahon held a meeting at the hotel with Jim Ross, Jim Cornette, Pat Patterson and Michaels. Reports are that at least two of the aforementioned names looked extremely uncomfortable leaving the meeting. Ross, on the WWF 900 line, filed a report saying due to the tension between Hart and Michaels that there would be armed security backstage and the two would dress as far apart from each other as possible. That was a total work since Michaels and Hart actually dressed together and were on professional terms the next afternoon. He also said that McMahon was not going to announce the show, and instead would be handling any last minute problems backstage. Ross also hinted that it could be Hart's final match in the World Wrestling Federation, something Hart at that point wasn't aware of.

NOVEMBER 9, 1997

The Prelude - Imagine going into the most anticipated match on the inside of pro wrestling in years and on the day of the show, not having any semblance of a finish? McMahon and Hart met that afternoon and McMahon said something to the effect of, "What do you want to do? You've got me by the balls." Hart said that he just wants to leave the building with his head up. Hart said to McMahon, "Let me hand you the belt on Raw (the next night in Ottawa). Everyone knows I'm leaving. I'd like to tell the truth on Raw Monday." At this point the "truth" wouldn't include talking about finances, contract breaches, arguments about finishes or anything that would make McMahon or the company look bad publicly. McMahon said he agreed, that it was the right thing to do and the two shook hands on it. Hart and Michaels were dressing together putting together a match. Both were professional with one another and talking about putting on the best match possible in Hart's last hurrah, agreeing to a DQ finish in about 17:00 after a lengthy brawl before the bell wound even sound to start the match. As they were putting their spots together, Patterson came in. He had a suggestion for a high spot in the match as a false finish. There would be a referee bump. Michaels would put Hart in his own sharpshooter. Hart would reverse the hold. Hebner would still be down at this point and not see Michaels tap out. Hart would release the hold to revive Hebner. Michaels would hit him when he turned around with the sweet chin music. A second ref, Mike Ciota, would haul ass to the ring and begin the count. A few paces behind, Owen Hart and Smith, and possibly Neidhart as well, would run down to the ring. Ciota would count 1-2, and whomever got to the ring first, likely Owen, would drag Ciota out of the ring. While they think they've saved the day on the pin on Bret, suddenly Hebner would recover, 1-2, and Bret would kick out. That would set the pace for about five more minutes of near falls before it would end up in a disqualification ending. Before the show started, both Vader, with his Japanese experience, and Smith, told Hart to watch himself. He was warned not to lay down and not to allow himself to be put in a compromising position. He was told to kick out at one, not two, and not to allow himself into any submission holds. Hart recognized the possibility of the situation, but his thoughts regarding a double-cross were more along with lines of always protecting himself in case Michaels tried to hit him with a sucker punch when he left himself open. The idea that being put in a submission or one of the near falls while working spots would be dangerous for him would be something to worry about normally, but he put it out of his mind because he had Hebner in the ring as the referee.

The match: People on the inside were watching this as close as on the outside. Would Bret do the job? Would Shawn do the job? Would Bret give Shawn a real beating before putting him over? The Molson Center was packed with more than 20,000 rabid fans, who up to that point had seen a largely lackluster undercard. While the fear going in about the word getting out of Hart leaving hurting the PPV most likely turned out to be just the opposite, the sellout was not indicative of that either as it was well known by the advance that the show was going to sellout one or two days early. It appeared that about 10 to 20 percent of the crowd knew Hart was leaving, and there were negative signs regarding his decision, and negative signs toward the promotion for picking Michaels above him or the direction that seemingly forced him to leave. Some things were also strange, and not just the absence of McMahon from the broadcast. Hart, the champion in the main event, wasn't scheduled for an interview building up the match. When his name was announced early in the show, there were many boos from fans who knew he signed with the opposition. Once he got in the ring for the introductions, Michaels wiped his butt, blew his nose and then picked his nose with the Canadian flag. He then put the flag on the ground and began humping it. Hart was immediately established as the babyface. The two began the match as a brawl all around ringside and into the stands. The crowd was so rabid that it appeared there was genuine danger they'd attack Michaels. At one point, they were brawling near the entrance, knocking down refs as planned, knocking down Patterson, as planned, and as planned, Hart and McMahon had an argument almost teasing the idea of a spot later in the match where Hart would deck McMahon. But it was also clear that everything going on was 100% professional and the only curiosity left at that point was how good the match was going to be (it appeared to be very good) and how would they get "out" of the match (with something nobody will ever forget). But one thing was strange. Why were so many agents circling the ring, and why was McMahon right there, and acting so intense? About eight minutes before the show was "supposed" to end, Bruce Prichard, in the "Gorilla" position (kind of the on-deck circle for the wrestlers) was screaming in his headset that we need more security at the ring. Why? They had already done the brawl in the crowd. The finish was going to be a DQ and it was still several minutes away.

The double-cross: Hart climbed the top rope for a double sledge on Michaels. Michaels pulled Hebner in the way and Hart crashed on him. Just as planned. Michaels for a split second, looked at McMahon and put Hart in the sharpshooter, just as planned. The next split seconds were the story. Ciota, listening to his headpiece for his cue to run-in, heard the backstage director scream to Hebner that it was time to get up. Hebner, listening himself, immediately got up. Ciota started screaming that he wasn't supposed to get up. Owen Hart and Smith, readying their run in, were equally perplexed seeing him get up. Prichard was freaking out backstage saying that wasn't supposed to happen. Bret, still not realizing anything was wrong, laid in the hold for a only a few seconds to build up some heat before doing the reversal. Michaels cinched down hard on the hold, glanced at Hebner and then looked away, which more than one wrestler in the promotion upon viewing the tape saw as the proof he was in on it, but then fed Bret his leg for the reversal. Hebner quickly looked at the timekeeper and screamed "ring the bell." At the same moment, McMahon, sitting next to the timekeeper, elbowed him hard and screamed "ring the f***in bell." The bell rang at about the same moment Bret grabbed the leg for the reversal and Michaels fell down on his face on the mat. Michaels' music played immediately and was immediately announced as the winner and new champion. Hebner sprinted out of the ring on the other side, into the dressing room, through the dressing room, and into an awaiting car in the parking lot that already had the motor running and was going to take him to the hotel, where he'd be rushed out of town with his ticket home, instead of staying to work the two Raw tapings. Michaels and Hart both leaped to their feet looking equally mad, cursing in McMahon's direction and glaring at him. Hart spit right in McMahon's face. The cameras immediately pulled away from Hart and to Michaels. Vince screamed at Michaels to "pick the f***in belt up and get the f*** out of there." Michaels, still looking mad, was ordered to the back by Jerry Brisco who told him to hold the belt up high and get to the back. The show abruptly went off the air about four minutes early.

The aftermath: The officials left the ring immediately. McMahon went into his private office in the building with Patterson and a few others, and locked the door behind him. Hart, in the ring, flipped out on the realization of what happened, and began smashing the television monitors left behind until Owen, Smith and Neidhart hit the ring to calm him down. The four had an animated discussion in the ring, all looking perturbed. Finally, Hart thanked the fans, who for the most part left with the air let out of their sails, gave the "I love you" sign to the fans, and finger painted "WCW" to all four corners of the ring, which got a surprisingly big pop, and went back to the dressing room. He first confronted Michaels, who swore that he had nothing to do with it. Michaels, obviously afraid Hart would punch him out right there, told Hart that he gets heat for everything that happens but this time it wasn't his fault and he was as mad as Hart about the finish. He said he didn't want to win the belt that way, was disgusted by what happened, and to prove it, would refuse to bring the belt out or say anything bad about Hart on Raw the next night. Hart said that Michaels could prove whether he was in on it or not by his actions on television the next night. The entire dressing room was furious at McMahon by this point. The feeling was that if Hart, having worked for the company for 14 years and not missing shots due to injuries the entire time, and having made McMahon millions of dollars throughout the years, could get double-crossed this bad, then how could any of them trust anything he would say or do? People were saying that how could anyone trust anyone ever again, and that it was an unsafe working environment.

For three years, after the steroid trial and all the bad publicity, McMahon had worked feverishly to change his legacy in the industry as not the man who ran all the other promoters out of business, not the man who marketed pro wrestling to young children while pushing steroid freaks, not the man who tried to destroy wrestling history and create his own, not his worked Harvard MBA, worked billion dollar company, a man who was so vain as to give himself a huge award in Madison Square Garden as "the genius who created Wrestlemania," not the man who at one time tried to monopolize every aspect of the business for himself, but instead as a working man's hero, coming from humble beginnings, fighting those ruthless rich regional promoters and through nothing but guts, guile and vision, became the dominant force in the industry and taking it to a new level. And now, against all odds, the generous friend trying to help all the small regional promoters, acknowledging the past history of the business, fighting against Billionaire Ted, the man who was stealing all his self-made creations while wasting his stockholders money because of some alleged petty vendetta because the WWF would never be for sale, stealing his patented idea of Monday night wrestling, was hanging in there and would outlast his enemy again and somehow in the end come out on top. Three years of a facade, that was largely working to a new generation of wrestling fans who saw him as their underdog hero. The man who to a generation that didn't know better, created pro wrestling, Hulk Hogan and localized interviews and rose this grimy little industry from carnival tents to major non-smoking arenas and who was the friendly face in the Father Flanagan collar who every Monday night epitomized the world of pro wrestling, was flushed down the commode. Even though he was so good at hiding who the old Vince McMahon was to the point only those who had dealt with him for many years remembered about not letting your guard down, when the pressure was on, the old Vince returned. Only this time, it was in a situation where those who didn't "know" him were truly "introduced" to him for the first time.

Undertaker was furious, pounding on his locked door, and when he came out to talk with him, Undertaker told him in no uncertain terms that he needed to apologize to Hart. He went to Hart's dressing room, where Hart had just come out of the shower. Smith answered the door and Hart said he didn't want to see him. Vince and son Shane McMahon came in with Sgt. Slaughter and Brisco anyway. Vince started to apologize, saying that he had to do it because he couldn't take the chance of Hart going to WCW without giving back the belt and he couldn't let Bischoff go on television the next night and announce Hart was coming while he was still his champion and said how it would kill his business. Hart shot back that he had no problem losing the belt and told McMahon that he was going to dry off and get his clothes on and told McMahon, "If you're still here, I'm going to punch you out." Hart called McMahon a liar and a piece of shit, and talked about having worked for him for 14 years, only missing two shots the entire time, and being a role model for the company and the industry and this was his payback. McMahon tried to say that in 14 years, this was the first time he'd ever lied to him and Hart rattled off 15 lies over the last year alone without even thinking about it. Those in the dressing room watching were stunned listening to Hart rattle them off, and McMahon not offering a comeback. Hart got dressed and twice told McMahon to get out. Hart got up, and a scuffle started, with them locking up like in a wrestling match, Hart breaking free, and throwing a punch to the jaw that would have knocked down a rhino. One punch KO in 40 seconds. McMahon growled like he was going to get up, but he had no legs. Shane McMahon jumped on Hart's back, and Smith jumped on Shane's back pulling him off. Not realizing there would be trouble, Smith had already taken off his knee brace, and hyperextended his knee in the process of pulling Shane off. Hart nearly broke his hand from the punch. McMahon's jaw was thought to be fractured or broken. Hart asked Vince if he was now going to screw him on all the money he owes him and a groggy Vince said "No." He told Shane and Brisco to get that "piece of shit" out of here and glaring at both of them, told them if they tried anything, they'd suffer the same result. In dragging McMahon out, someone accidentally stepped on his ankle injuring it as well.

And later: Hebner, at the hotel and on his way out of town, was confronted by one of the wrestlers who asked how he could do that to one of his best friends. Hebner claimed ignorance and swore that he knew nothing about it and was so mad about it he was going to quit. Jack Lanza, likely as part of another facade, was begging him not to. Patterson, Michaels and Prichard all denied any knowledge to the boys. Everyone denied it, but it was clear everyone had to know, from the production truck to go off the air several minutes early, to the director to get the shot perfect of the sharpshooter where you couldn't see Bret's face not quit, to Hebner in particular, to the ring announcer to get the announcement so quickly, so the man handling the music to have Michaels music all cued up, to all the agents, who were surrounding the ring knowing the possibility of something unpredictable happening. When Hart got back to his hotel room in a total daze, he was furious at McMahon because he knew he was screaming at the timekeeper to ring the bell but almost recognizing it as a reality of a business that he should have known better than anyone. But when he had a tape of the finish played to him, he clearly heard that it was Hebner's voice screaming "ring the bell" and at that point was personally crushed. Phone lines were ringing off the hook around wrestling-land that night. People closest to the inside of the business were thinking double-cross, although the big question was whether Michaels, since he looked so pissed at the finish, was in on it. Some more skeptical types, remembering Brian Pillman and Kevin Sullivan, thought it because of the prominence of the match and the interest, that it had to be a very well acted work. Virtually all the wrestlers backstage thought it was a double-cross, but a few, not wanting to be marks, were wary of fully committing to the idea. Some people who were close to inside thought it was the greatest worked finish in the history of wrestling, because it got everyone talking. Others, particularly people who had casual fans watching with them, or those attending the show live, saw how the finish to a casual fan came off looking so badly, thought it was either a poorly conceived angle that was well acted by a company trying too hard to fool smart fans; or maybe a double-cross. But by the morning the true story had become obvious.

November 10, 1997 - When the wrestlers fully realized what had happened, Hart turned into almost a cult hero, and McMahon's image took an incredible tumble. Hart himself remarked that while he had his problems with McMahon in the late 80s, that when Phil Mushnick wrote all those scathing articles about him during the 90s, he defended McMahon, even though he deep down knew most of what was written about him to be true. According to two WWF wrestlers, roughly 95 percent of the wrestlers in the company were planning on boycotting the Raw taping later that night over what happened. But as the day went on, the talk simmered down, Hart told those who asked him that since they had children and mortgages, that they shouldn't risk breaching their contract and should go. However, Owen Hart, Smith, Neidhart and Mick Foley were so upset they all flew home, missing the tapings both this night and also in Cornwall, ONT the next night. Many were saying they could no longer work for someone who would do something like that. While rumors abounded about Hart, Smith and Foley all quitting, at press time it appeared none of the three truly knew their future but that they all had a bitter taste in their mouth for the company. They weren't the only ones. Most of the wrestlers were there and with none of the Hart family around, McMahon gave his side of the story. He portrayed it as if Hart had agreed to drop the title in Montreal, but when he got to the building, he said he was a Canadian hero and an ICON and refused to drop the title and said Hart said he would give the belt to McMahon on Raw the next night and refused to ever drop it. Reports were that by this time few if anyone in the dressing room believed a word of it. Most of the wrestlers by this time knew Hart was more forced out than voluntarily leaving over money, although knowing he had signed a great money deal. Most of the heat was on Michaels, with the belief that Michaels was younger and more in Vince's ear and there was a lot of bitterness because it wasn't a secret by this point that Michaels had told people on several occasions that he would never do a job in the territory. The show went on in Ottawa, but not before Bischoff had already announced on Nitro one hour earlier, in what was the same angle he's done so many times to tease and deliver the opposite, that Bret Hart had signed with the NWO. Bischoff opened the show with the entire NWO holding Canadian flags, and badly mockingly singing "Oh Canada." WCW announcers Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko talked for most of the first hour about the announcement, with Schiavone and Tenay, likely on orders from Bischoff, acting stunned, describing Hart as a second generation wrestler who stands for tradition, in other words positioning him as another Curt Hennig or Jeff Jarrett, rather than the level of a Hulk Hogan to justify a nearly $3 million per year salary. Zbyszko was the one who acted as if he didn't believe it. In the first commercial break, Gene Okerlund did a 900 line tease saying how Bret Hart punched out a prominent official and he'd have the story on his hotline, which did huge business. During the hotline, because of fear of legal repercussions, the story wasn't told until late in the report, only a sketchy version told, and McMahon's name was never mentioned. With more curiosity than anything in recent memory, the WWF drew its strongest Raw rating since the early days of the Monday Night War--a 3.39 rating and 5.16 share--largely due to curiosity stemming from the publicity, the match, and from the announcement about Hart earlier in the event on WCW--and amidst all the chaos and confusion, presented one of its all-time worst shows. Nitro did a phenomenal 4.33 rating and 6.39 share. Michaels opened the show. Yes, he was carrying the belt. And what did he say about Hart? He said he beat the man in his own country with his own hold and that he ran him out of the WWF to be with all the other dinosaurs down South. And said that the few down there who weren't dinosaurs are his good friends and some day they'd kick his ass too. Those who were on the fence on the Michaels issue waiting for his interview to prove himself were given their final answer. McMahon never showed his face on camera. The fight with Hart was never acknowledged in the commentary, although Michaels couldn't resist in his interview saying how Hart beat up a 52-year-old man after the show. In the commentary, nobody tried to bury Hart, but Ross, who had never used this figure before, on both Sunday and Monday used the phrase 21-year-veteran, perhaps as subtle acknowledgement of Hart's age, and Lawler did bring up the $3 million per year figure, as a way to encourage the mindless "You sold out" chants. It was acknowledged that it was Hart's final match in the WWF although the reasons for it being the case were never even hinted at. The replay was pushed harder than ever, and why not, since it was the most bizarre finish in modern wrestling history, complete with a commercial clearly showing Hart spitting in McMahon's face, and destroying the monitors which took place after the show itself had gone off the air. The show dragged on, and the efforts to push the new stars, Mero as a heel, Goldust back as a heel, Interrogator, Blackjack Bradshaw and Road Dog & Billy Gunn, all came off lame. You could almost hear the crowd groan when it was Rocky Maivia positioned as the next challenger for Steve Austin's IC title. With all the special effects, the Kane gimmick still came across as a sure winner. And Ken Shamrock was thrust into the spotlight as Michaels' first challenger on 12/7 after all. However, there was another screw up. Shamrock's main event with Helmsley was supposed to end with Michaels interfering and then Shamrock pinning him and the ref counting to three, perhaps to take heat off Michaels rep for not doing jobs, and perhaps as a way to convince Shamrock to return the favor for such an unpopular wrestler on PPV. However, the show went off the air with Shamrock down apparently being pinned after Michaels nailed him with the briefcase, however he kicked out just as the show went off the air. The crowd in Ottawa, largely pro-Hart, finally figured out about 15 minutes before the show was going off the air, that none of the Hart Foundation was there, and that the Bret Hart situation was no angle. The Shamrock-Helmsley main event heat was non-existent, drowned out by vehement chants of "We Want Bret." Ross went on his hotline and did nothing but praise Hart for all his work, even to the point of saying that he himself, being right there, never heard a submission but that the referee claimed that he heard it.

November 11, 1997 - The Calgary Sun ran an article about the double-cross, reporting that Hart's leaving for WCW was actually requested by the WWF due to the WWF claiming financial hardships.

And where does it go from here: It's hard to make sense out of all that happened. While Hart's contract with the WWF was much higher than anyone else's, to dismiss him as being paid above market value is missing a potential valuable point. What is the Canadian wresting market worth? Far more than $1.5 million per year. At the Calgary Stampede PPV show alone, the market was worth about $400,000 on PPV and another $200,000 in live gate, granted those are Canadian money and he was being paid in American money, but you get the drift. While WWF had lost its foothold in the United States to WCW, it owned Canada. WCW, with TBS getting moved from premium cable to basic cable nationwide, and with TSN picking up Nitro every week, was for the first time getting strong television exposure in the country. No matter what he did or didn't mean elsewhere, and there is no denying he was a major draw in the United States, and probably more so in Europe, Germany in particular, he was the wrestling star in Canada. Handing him to the opposition will mean from a Canadian standpoint, every bit as much as Hulk Hogan joining with WCW, and we've all seen what the long-term effects of that turned out to be. It's hard to ascertain fan reaction. Fans are more loyal these days to brand names than ever before, more than to wrestlers themselves. When, in a similar situation only he didn't get into the ring and was fired before "not" doing the job, Ric Flair came out of a situation with Jim Herd in 1991 recognized by most fans as the real world champion, the WCW belt became largely meaningless, Flair went to WWF and did big business in what were never called unification matches but many thought of them as such against Hulk Hogan. For nearly two years, before Flair returned as the cult hero, the small crowds attending WCW matches never stopped the "We Want Flair" chants. There are similarities here, and if anything, times being different mean more people than ever will be aware of it, making similar chants perhaps more likely. But a lot of the newer fans also for the most part have less respect for the wrestlers as people and more as animals to perform stunts to entertain them, like in other sports, have more loyalties to the "home team" than its players who come and go for the biggest buck. And while everyone will put their different spin on what happened, and like with Hogan, and Bruno, and nearly every other superstar of the WWF beforehand, Bret Hart failed one of the things he wanted most out of his career, and that was to walk away from the company without the bitterness and with mainly good memories. Both Bret Hart and Vince McMahon wanted their legacies to be tied together and represent all that can be good about pro wrestling. But the fact it is, no matter how great the match with Smith at Wembley Stadium or at the In Your House in Hershey were, or the Wrestlemania match and SummerSlam matches with Owen were, or the SummerSlam match with Hennig, or the Survivor Series match with Michaels, or any of the rest, his legacy, and Vince McMahon's legacy will forever be tied together in wrestling history. The defining moment of both a Hall of Fame wrestler and the man who for a decade was the dominant promoter in the industry will be the moment that the world realized, right in front of their eyes, with no apologies, and with no turning back to re-write history, just how truly deceitful, to the core this business can be, and just how much 14 years of being one of the great performers in the history of the industry truly meant on the inside to the company that benefitted from it. Only the future can determine whether this was a defining moment in the balance of business when it comes to pro wrestling. Did McMahon really hand over the keys to Canada to WCW? Will fans really hate McMahon four weeks later when Michaels headlines a PPV show with a four star match? Will Hart be a huge success keeping WCW at its current level, or even taking them to an even higher level by having main events on PPV shows that can live up to the quality of the preliminary matches? Or are his best years really behind him and McMahon will have the last laugh at how much Bischoff paid for him? How long will Hart remain a cult hero to the wrestlers for doing what none of them had the guts to do and all at one time want to do? Will McMahon file criminal charges for assault? And will, someday, and stranger things have happened although in this case it would be hard today to believe it as possible, will the two get back together in a few years for a final triumphant run?

Epilogue: One of the first major moves when Vince McMahon Jr. took over the World Wrestling Federation from his father was on December 26, 1983, when the Iron Sheik captured the WWF title from Bob Backlund. The title switch was basically a prelude for Hulk Hogan winning the title a few weeks later. The finish of the match saw Sheik have Backlund in a camel clutch, and Arnold Skaaland, a former part-owner of the company who worked as Backlund's manager, threw in the towel signifying submission. Backlund remained with the company for the next eight months, largely buried in the middle of the card despite being the face of the company for six years. After all the big gates he'd headlined, just a few months later, in August, McMahon, who was starting on the road to changing the entire face of wrestling and Backlund represented the old, asked him to die his hair and turn heel. He refused and was fired. Backlund spent the next several years claiming that he didn't know the finish of the match and was double-crossed on it when Skaaland threw in the towel. Everyone in wrestling heard the story but really very few took it seriously, figuring Backlund was just clinging onto a worked story to protect his image claiming he never really submitted and was robbed of the title. On November 25, 1985, before a match in Madison Square Garden, Victoria "Wendi" Richter, literally minutes before going into the ring for a match with Spider Lady in Madison Square Garden, was given a contract by McMahon and asked to sign off on all her merchandising rights. She actually didn't refuse to sign the contract, but said she wanted to read it before signing it because she was literally on her way to the ring. McMahon told her, actually she has claimed, demanded to her, to sign the deal. She told him to wait until after the match so she could read the contract and then maybe sign it. As it turns out, Spider Lady wasn't the wrestler who had been Spider Lady in the past, but was instead Lillian Ellison, better known as Fabulous Moolah. Although Lillian was probably closing in on 60 by that point, she maneuvered Richter into a position, and the unsuspecting Richter was held in position and had her shoulders counted out for the pin, and never worked in the WWF again. After the match and to this day, Moolah had always maintained to Richter, like Michaels to Hart, that she wasn't aware of the set-up either and the three count came as just as big a surprise to her. It brings to mind a few old sayings. History repeats itself. Leopards don't change their spots. Perhaps as much as we would all like to believe otherwise, deep down to its core, the wrestling industry really doesn't change either.

FAMOUS PRO WRESTLING WORLD TITLE DOUBLE CROSSES

1911 - Frank Gotch vs. George Hackenschmidt: One of history's most famous pro wrestling matches ever. Gotch, who became recognized almost universally as world champion with a win over Hackenschmidt three years earlier, was defending his title in the first ever rematch of the century. Before the match ever took place, Ad Santel, a noted "hooker" (an old term for submission expert or bonebreaker), a sparring partner of Hackenschmidt who as it later came out, was paid $5,000 by Gotch's people to do so, tore out Hackenschmidt's knee. Because a record breaking gate was expected and achieved ($87,000 in those days would probably be like $8 million today), the show had to go on and the promoters kept the injury a secret from the public. Gotch, knowing about the injury, reached an agreement with Hackenschmidt, who wanted to pull out of the match due to his injury, to give him one fall in the best-of-three and carry him to a match where he looked credible. But once the match started, Gotch double-crossed him, winning easily and quickly in two straight falls.

1920 - Earl Caddock vs. Joe Malciewicz: Caddock, the champion, had already agreed to drop the title to Joe Stecher just a few weeks later in New York, but in this match Malciewicz shot on him and hammered him the entire match and was given the decision. The press, largely controlled in those days by the wrestling promoters, hushed up the match and the title change was never recognized.

1925 - Wayne Munn vs. Stanislaus Zbyszko: Munn was a 6-8 giant, especially for his time, and a college football hero, but he actually couldn't wrestle but he could draw football fans, so I guess that made him decades ahead of his time. Seeing box office, Strangler Lewis, who controlled the world title with promoter Billy Sandow as the Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon of their eras, dropped the title to Munn to build up a successful run leading to it being returned in due time. Rival promoter Tony Stecher, whose brother Joe was a legendary wrestler and rival of Lewis at the time for who really was the best wrestler around, put Zbyszko up to stealing the title. Two months earlier, to prove his loyalty to Sandow, Zbyszko put Munn over cleanly and professionally so they had no fear in giving him a title match. Once this match started, Zbyszko, one of the great true wrestlers of his era, although nearing 60 by this point, shot and beat him so badly the referee, one of Sandow's most loyal employees, had no choice but to stop the match and award the title to him to save Munn from more of a beating and prevent the Philadelphia fans from rioting from the farce of any other decision. Sandow got the commissions in Michigan and Illinois to erase this match and still bill Munn as champion, and as quickly as they could arranged for him to drop it to Lewis, creating two champions, while Zbyszko, on the same night as Lewis beat Munn, put over Joe Stecher as planned.

1926 - Joe Stecher vs. John Pesek: This match was at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. The two worked the first two falls of a title match with Stecher defending. In the third fall, Pesek, another wrestler who most experts of the time would rank as among the greatest wrestlers ever, double-crossed Stecher and beat the hell out of him, putting him in a double wristlock. But this was all for naught because the referee at that moment ruined the double-cross by disqualifying Pesek for no apparent reason. There was a major investigation by the athletic commission, but as was likely during that time period, the promotion probably bought off the commission and Stecher retained the title.

1931 - Ed Don George vs. Strangler Lewis: At this point, Lewis and Sandow had been in business with Northeast promoter Paul Bowser and all were making big money with Gus Sonnenberg, another football hero who couldn't wrestle, as champion. After Sonnenberg was beaten up on the street by a middleweight wrestler in a situation set up by their rival promoters, Bowser, without consulting Sandow and Lewis, had Sonnenberg drop the title to George, who had just come out of the Olympics and was another great wrestler. Lewis was waiting for his revenge, but did jobs for Bowser's wrestlers to show his loyalty, and a title match was set up for Los Angeles. As they got into the ring for a match George was supposed to win, Lewis came out and casually said that he was going to take the title and they could do it the hard way or the easy way. Since George knew he couldn't beat Lewis, he chose the easy way.

1931 - Strangler Lewis vs. Henri DeGlane: It took only three weeks before Bowser signed Lewis to defend the title in Montreal against Henri DeGlane, the 1924 Olympic gold medalist who had become a big draw. This was the famous battle of the bite we wrote about after the Tyson-Holyfield fiasco. Lewis went into the ring knowing he was going to win in three falls. After the second fall (in those days wrestlers returned to the dressing room between falls so they could have intermissions and sell concessions), DeGlane bit himself in the arm near the armpit until he drew blood. He kept the arm covered, went out for the fall, immediately started screaming like Holyfield did, Lewis backed off having no idea what was happening. The ref saw the blood and teeth marks and disqualified Lewis awarding the title to DeGlane. Lewis was so furious about the double-cross that he went backstage to do to Bowser what Hart did to McMahon, however Bowser was a little more ready, having six bodyguards all armed with baseball bats covering him, and Lewis, trying to play it cool, said he was quitting anyway and left for Europe.

1933 - Jim Londos vs. Joe Savoldi: In the history of American wrestling, Londos ranks with Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant as the biggest drawing card ever. However, he had made enemies at this time with the promoters in New York, who had their own world champion in Jim Browning. The New York promoters set up the double-cross in Chicago by buying off both Savoldi and referee Bob Managoff (whose son was a champion wrestler of the next generation). Savoldi put on a submission and as planned, Londos made the ropes, but Savoldi then put real pressure on, the ref pretended he didn't see Londos touch the ropes, called for the submission and awarded Savoldi the title. Savoldi then brought the title to New York and lost a unification match to Browning, giving the New York promoters a champion with even more credibility. The irony of all this is that over the next year, the crowds in New York started falling and they begged Londos to come back, and gave him the world title from Browning to get him back to save their business. The moral of this story is obvious.

1936 - Danno O'Mahoney vs. Dick Shikat: O'Mahoney, an Irish star who wasn't much of a wrestler, had turned into a monster draw in Boston for Paul Bowser, drawing several stadium crowds of around 30,000, and also drew well in New York for Jack Curley, and throughout the Northeast. In a match in Madison Square Garden, Shikat, considered one of the legitimately toughest men in the business at the time, was put up by rival promoters Jack Pfeffer and Al Haft, who were at war with Curley, to shoot on O'Mahoney and he destroyed him. The ref had no idea what to do about it. Shikat won the title, but then his promoters had him drop it just a few weeks later. Bowser in Boston continued to bill O'Mahoney as champion until he lost it a year later in Montreal to Yvon Robert. Many point to this match as the match, because it was a shoot, that exposed wrestling and killed the business in New York that it wasn't until the advent of Argentina Rocca some 15 years later that wrestling became lucrative at the Garden.

1950 - Don Eagle vs. Gorgeous George: Eagle was recognized primarily in Boston as world champion, and was defending his version of the title outside the territory in Chicago. This was in many ways the most similar to Hart-Michaels as ref Earl Mollohan double-crossed Eagle and counted him down when Eagle kicked out, then bailed out of the ring as quickly as he could with an enraged Eagle chasing him down the aisle. We've also heard disputes on this one saying that was actually planned as a controversial finish but the general feeling from those viewing the tape is that it was remarkably similar to Hart-Michaels.

1979 - Antonio Inoki vs. Bob Backlund: The previous week in Japan, Backlund dropped the WWF title to Inoki with the agreement that he'd win it back in their rematch and return to the U.S., with no title change ever being acknowledged in the U.S. The match is completely worked, and as planned, in the finish Tiger Jeet Singh interferes causing Inoki to lose the title back. Inoki gives the title back to Backlund. However, in the double-cross, after the match WWF President Hisashi Shinma ruled the match a no contest and said that Inoki was still the champion. This was a set-up by Inoki and Shinma, primarily because New Japan was scheduled to do a television taping about seven weeks later in Madison Square Garden on a WWF show and they wanted for their own TV purposes and ratings, for Inoki to main event the Garden, where he'd drop the title to Backlund. Vince McMahon Sr. was already building up Bobby Duncum as the big man of the month to work with Backlund. McMahon basically ignored everything, and as a face saving gesture, brought in Inoki to wrestle Iron Sheik and billed his match as for the WWF World Martial Arts championship, a title Inoki would continue to use for many years in the future both in Japan and the U.S. For Japanese television, neither Backlund nor Duncum entered the ring for the belt, nor was Backlund introduced as champion, and he was then given the belt after beating Duncum. However, all the pre-match hype in the U.S. for the match had Backlund defending against Duncum.

1983 - Bob Backlund vs. Iron Sheik (see page seven)

1985 - Wendi Richter vs. Spider Lady (see page seven)

1991 - Nobuhiko Takada vs. Trevor Berbick: While technically not a world title match, this was one of two mixed matches on a UWFI show in Sumo Hall. This match, featuring a former boxing heavyweight champion, and another featuring James Warring, at the time recognized by the IBF as the world cruiserweight champion, against pro wrestler Billy Scott were expected by the Americans to be worked. However, once the bell sounded, Takada shot on Berbick, laying in a few hard leg kicks. Berbick freaked out, left the ring at 2:52 of the first round, and refused to come back out. Scott and Warring had worked out a match, and Scott was working with Warring early. When it came time for Warring to make his comeback and win, Scott shot on him, took him down and controlled him on the ground for the rest of the fight, which turned into a shoot, and Scott won the match via decision.

1994 - NWA title tournament: While also not at the time a major league world title, the NWA name was being resurrected by a number of small promoters, who had Tod Gordon's Eastern Championship Wrestling, ostensibly and really controlled by booker Paul Heyman, host a tournament to crown a champion. There was no double-cross in the ring, as it was agreed ahead of time, although reluctantly by some, for ECW's champion, Shane Douglas to win the tournament. It was after the match that Heyman, Gordon and Douglas double-crossed the rest of the NWA, throwing down the title belt and grabbing his own title while a shocked NWA President Dennis Coraluzzo was in the ring watching. Coraluzzo was tricked after the speech into doing a promo for ECW television stripping Douglas of the title, allowing Gordon to announce they were splitting from the NWA and forming a new company, Extreme Championship Wrestling, and recognizing Douglas as their first champion. Coraluzzo and ECW had been territorial enemies in the past, had mended fences for this show, and have remained enemies ever since with the exception of a peace truce between the two sides in 1997 that lasted for about 15 seconds before both sides claimed the other had double-crossed them again.

WWF SURVIVOR SERIES POLL RESULTS
Thumbs up 69 (39.7%)
Thumbs down 51 (29.3%)
In the middle 54 (31.0%)

BEST MATCH POLL
Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels 119
Kane vs. Mankind 18
Shamrock & Johnson & LOD vs. NOD 13

WORST MATCH POLL
Truth Commission vs. DOA 62
Jammes & Gunn & Godwinns vs. Blackjacks & Bangers 47
Team Canada vs. Team USA 14

Based on phone calls and letters to the Observer as of Tuesday, 11/11. Statistical margin of error: +-100%

In the wake of all that insanity came the show itself, on 11/9 at the Molson Center in Montreal. Survivor Series live drew a sellout crowd of 20,593 (18,101 paying an all-time province record $447,284).

The show, when it was over, was overshadowed by the finish of the main event and the aftermath. Before the show had even started, it was guaranteed the show would be upstaged by the main event, both the quality of which and the backstage maneuvering, negotiating, professionalism and ultimately threat of double-crossing rather than anything that took place underneath.

As it was, it was the same broken record. The lack of talent depth in the WWF was made even more glaring in a show format that requires so many wrestlers to work the show. Even more glaring was that the problem seems to be in the picking of talent. Historically, the WWF has always been known as a "big-man" territory. In the 80s that served them in good stead because they were controlling the fan base into the idea that the steroid look was superior, and then continued to parade out an assembly line of guys who weren't generally very good workers, but provided the fans with what they wanted. In the 90s, for numerous reasons, mainly media and government pressure, things had to change, which is where Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, talented mid-card performers that were generally considered in the 80s as not to have any main event potential due to their size, got their shot at superstardom. But even in those days, WWF still marketed successfully some marginally talented and even untalented big men to the top of its cards. If you look at the undercards of WWF vs. WCW, in WCW you are filled with small men who wow the crowds with matches that get over. WWF has the same big men doing an outdated style of plodding brawling that gets no heat on the big shows, and generally Michaels and/or Steve Austin or Hart are there at the end to save the show. WCW still has the terrible main event matches, but it can't be argued with the results of the buy rates and that is those terrible over-40 wrestlers that work on top draw the casual fans through their name recognition. But for every Kane, which is a gimmick that seems to be hitting it big, you have far too many Crushes, Interrogators, Brian Lees, Justin Hawk Bradshaws and Kama Mustafas who are all huge men with no fan appeal, or men like Faarooq and Ahmed Johnson with little ability in the ring and some, but not overwhelming, fan appeal. The wrestlers in first two matches on this show were a lot worse than I see locally with independent wrestlers with little experience. And the wrestlers they are scouting on the independent scene are close to Brian Lees than to Shawn Michaels', both in terms of size and talent, if you get my drift. It's hard for me to understand, because the concept of when everyone in the ring is 6-5, that there are no big men in the ring who can get away with slow moving and a lack of action, but when everyone in the ring is 5-9, than a 6-3 wrestler can get away with doing big-man spots and still have a good match because size in the ring is all illusion based on who one is in the ring with. Yet we saw two horrible matches with a bunch of 6-5 guys, and no smaller, faster guys because with the exception of Taka Michinoku, the promotion has lagged to the point they are way behind the eight-ball so to speak. The political situation isn't entirely the company's fault based on who they have to deal with and WCW trying to corner the market, in making deals to shore up their depth by adding the new dimension, but the weaknesses have never been more glaring than the first few matches on this show.

1. Billy Gunn (Monty Sopp) & Jesse Jammes (Brian James) & The Godwinns (Mark Canterbury & Dennis Knight) won an elimination match over Head Bangers (Charles Warrington & Glen Ruth) & Blackjacks (John Hawk & Barry Windham) in 15:27. Bradshaw pinned Henry Godwinn in 3:58 with an abdominal stretch dropped into a lateral guillotine. Phineas Godwinn pinned Windham in 5:16 after a clothesline. Windham looked really bad in this match. Gunn pinned Mosh in 8:43 when he blocked a bulldog and stuffed him on his face. Thrasher pinned Phineas in 12:39 with a Thesz press off the top rope. Jammes pinned Bradshaw in 13:46 with a schoolboy. This left Jammes & Gunn, who seem to be getting a big push as the next challengers for the LOD, in with Thrasher. Thrasher had Jammes pinned, however Jammes had already tagged Gunn behind Thrasher's back, and Gunn came off the top rope with a legdrop and scored the pin. DUD

2. The Truth Commission (Robert Mallay & Don Callis & Luc Poirier & Barry Buchanan) won an elimination match over the DOA (Brian Adams & Brian & Ron & Don Harris) in 9:58. The idea of this match seemed to be to put Interrogator over by destroying everyone, similar to the successful booking at a Royal Rumble a few years ago that put Diesel into the upper echelon. This was nowhere near as effective. Interrogator was billed as 7-0, 388 pounds, but he looked really bad and didn't get heat, even though he's got somewhat campy facial expressions. First he destroyed Chainz with a side slam in 1:18. In retribution, Skull pinned Jackal in 2:52 with a side slam. Jackal was the only normal sized wrestler in the sea of giants, but he was in too briefly to get any kind of gauge as to his ability. Jackal talked on the mic doing color after being eliminated. Eight Ball (or what is Skull?) pinned Recon with a clothesline in 5:20. Sniper pinned Skull in 6:30 after a poorly executed bulldog after Interrogator gave Skull a love tap designed to be a killer blow. Interrogator pinned Eight Ball in 8:51 with a side slam. Crush pinned Sniper in 9:47 with a tilt a whirl slam, and 11 seconds later, Interrogator dropped Crush with a side slam to win the match. A worst match of the year candidate. -*1/2

3. Team Canada (Doug Furnas & Phil LaFon & Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart) beat Team USA (Leon White & Dustin Runnels & Marc Mero & Steve Blackman) in 17:47. Goldust had "FU" painted on his face, but it actually stands for "Forever unchained" and not the more obvious reference. The storyline portrayed Blackman as a fan and a martial artist, and his wrestling experience in Calgary was never mentioned on the broadcast. There was a big pop when Bulldog suplexed Vader. Blackman got no heat for what he did because people didn't see him as a star, but he worked pretty well doing the martial arts gimmick. At 5:47, Blackman was counted out fighting Team Canada, doing the gimmick that his inexperience in pro wrestling rules led to his downfall. Vader pinned Neidhart in 7:32 with a splash. Vader then pinned LaFon in 9:07 with a splash off the middle rope. The crowd was dead at this point in the match. LaFon looked bad. Mero, who has negative charisma in his new character, tried a Mero-sault on Furnas, but ended up landing on his shoulder and it appeared Furnas was injured, although he worked the rest of the match. Furnas pinned Mero after reversing a sunset flip and holding the trunks for the pin in 11:59. Vader suplexed Furnas on his neck, but Furnas came back with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex on Vader and also hit a Frankensteiner. Vader, who had to totally carry the match for his team since Goldust was injured, was really huffing and puffing by this point, but did a good job. Goldust, working the match with a hand broken in three places and he obviously couldn't work and they built a storyline around it. He would never tag in, and finally Vader slapped him, tagging him in. Before locking up, Goldust simply walked to the back to get counted out at 17:00, with the storyline being that not only did he walk out on his marriage, but also on his country. This left Vader with both Furnas and Smith. Vader pinned Furnas in 17:35 after a Vader bomb. While this was going on, Smith grabbed the ring bell and locked Vader with it and pinned him to win the match in 17:47. Even though Team Canada beat Team USA in front of 20,000 fans in Montreal, the pop wasn't what you'd think. **1/2

4. Kane (Glen Jacobs) pinned Mankind (Michael Foley) in 9:29. They turned the house lights off for this match so Kane's gimmick is that he's wrestling in the dark, trying to get across the idea it is in the bowels of hell. Mankind did an excellent job of carrying him by taking big bumps on the steps. Kane worked as a monster most of the way until the finish when he took one big bump. Mankind then piledrove him, and put the claw on Paul Bearer. Kane got up and threw Mankind off the apron taking the Nestea plunge through a table. This table breaking was great the first time they did it on PPV, but it's becoming a monthly thing now. Mankind came back using a double arm DDT on the floor and did the hip shattering elbow drop off the apron. He went to the top rope, but Kane got up and slammed him off the top rope onto the floor. Mankind "got up" and crawled into the ring, and was given the tombstone piledriver for the pin. ***

5. Ken Shamrock & Ahmed Johnson (Tony Norris) & Legion of Doom (Joe Laurinaitis & Michael Hegstrand) beat the Nation of Domination (Ron Simmons & Charles Wright & A.C. Conner & Duane Johnson) in 20:34. The purpose of this match was to get Shamrock over as one of the top echelon guys, and it seemed that goal was accomplished. Shamrock & LOD got huge pops coming out. I can't figure out exactly why it is, but it's undeniable that there is something about Maivia that makes an excellent heel. He and Shamrock both did a great job in this match, which started out kind of weak but ended up being fairly good. Maivia pinned Hawk in 2:15 after a uranage suplex, after Kama had kicked Hawk. It is really something to see Hawk be positioned as such a fall guy after the 80s when he was this invincible superman. Johnson pinned Faarooq in 4:39 after the Pearl River plunge. Faarooq stayed at ringside, and ended up tripping Johnson and holding his feet from outside while Maivia pinned him in 6:19. Johnson and Faarooq brawled to the back but the brawl looked bad because Johnson didn't appear to be trying very hard to actually catch him, and when he did, they seemed to more like waltz to the back than brawl. The crowd died with Animal vs. Kama. Animal ended up dropkicking Kama into Rocky, who was standing on the apron, and Animal got the pin on Kama in 10:53. This left Shamrock & Animal vs. Maivia & Brown. Brown is the steadiest worker in the NOD but has no credibility with the fans. They were doing a pretty good job, aside from the spot where Brown missed a moonsault by about four feet on Shamrock. Gunn & Jammes came out, with Jammes wearing the LOD's spiked shoulder pads that they stole on Raw. Animal jumped out to fight with both of them, and Gunn threw powder in Animal's eyes leading to the count out in 15:22. This left Shamrock against both. Shamrock pinned Brown with the belly-to-belly in 17:11. Teasing the finish of the Team Canada vs. Team USA match, Maivia immediately hit Shamrock from behind with a chair but Shamrock kicked out of the pin. He delivered an incredible looking groin shot for a near fall and a float over DDT for another near fall. Shamrock blocked a second float over DDT and turned it into a Northern Lights suplex, then hit a Frankensteiner and got the tap out with the ankle lock. During the commentary, Jim Ross on several occasions was really trying to position Shamrock up to the next level even hinting that he could be the top star in the promotion at some point. **3/4

6. Steve Austin (Steve Williams) won the IC title from Owen Hart in 4:04. This match was short without a lot of bump taking since Austin's neck is injured to the point he really shouldn't be working and this was Hart's first match back after the concussion and he really wasn't ready to work either. For television, Hart was positioned as the total heel and even in Montreal, Austin's persona is so strong that the fans seemed like they wanted to cheer him. Still, Hart, carrying the Canadian flag to the ring, with Team Canada in his corner, got the vast majority of cheers even while working heel style. Neidhart tried to jump Austin but got a stunner for his trouble, giving Hart the early advantage. Fans were chanting "break his neck" to Owen. They teased a piledriver spot but of course Austin backdropped his way out of it. Hart smashed Austin's knee on the post a few times, but Austin came back using his leg strength to post Hart. Hart began choking Austin with the mic chord but told the ref to DQ him, but the ref didn't. Hart then rang the bell himself to signal a DQ but of course that wasn't the case either. Out of nowhere, Austin hit the stunner for the pin. After the match Austin gave stunners to both Furnas and LaFon as well. *

7. Shawn Michaels (Michael Hickenbottom) won the WWF title from Bret Hart in 12:11. As far as people worrying what would go on in the ring between the two, there was nothing but total cooperation. Michaels wiped his butt, blew his nose and picked his nose with the Canadian flag. The two ended up brawling, both in the stands and around ringside for 7:22 before the match ever started. They brawled into the stands and Michaels had so much heat it appeared fans were wanting to attack him themselves. The flag stuff literally had fans wanting to jump the rails after him. The heat Michaels has is incredible, it's like what we're all told Buddy Rogers had in his day. At one point Michaels punched Pat Patterson. At another point Hart and Vince McMahon, who watched the match from close range rather than broadcast the show, had words as they were brawling in the aisle. Michaels knocked down ref Tim White. Michaels took a header over a barricade near the dressing room door. Hart punched ref Jack Doan. Then the match started. They had a very good match, and it probably would have been an excellent match had they gotten to work all the way to their own planned finish. Michaels dropped Hart's face on the steps, then broke the Canadian flag and attacked him with the flagpole to the throat. Hart did the figure four around the post. There was a small chant of "Bret sold out." He put on the figure four in the middle, but Michaels reversed it and Hart got to the ropes. Hart got a few near falls before the referee bump with Earl Hebner leading to what no doubt will go down in wrestling history behind the scenes as one of the most famous finishes ever. ***3/4

Ernesto Hoost captured the K-1 Grand Prix tournament on 11/9 before a sellout 54,500 fans paid at the Tokyo Dome.

The one-night eight-man tournament, similar to the early UFC tournaments, pitted the eight winners from the September show at the Osaka Dome. Interest in this show was such that the event sold out in one hour, which is far quicker than any pro wrestling sellout at the building in history, or for that matter any pro wrestling stadium event in history. In addition, the show aired from 7 to 9 p.m. later that night (tape delay as it was actually an afternoon card) on the Fuji network drawing a 20.7 rating, making it the most watched show in the history of the promotion, which ranked No. 10 for the week in Japanese network prime time programming. The show got more coverage in the Japanese media than the Evander Holyfield-Michael Moorer heavyweight title fight that took place just a few hours earlier.

K-1 is one of those weird Japanese combination of both shoots and works. Promoter Kazuyoshi Ishii, and his original top star, Masaaki Satake, used to work on Akira Maeda's RINGS shows in the early 90s so they have a background in both the promoting and the workings of pro wrestling. From 1993, when K-1 was formed, K-1 has achieved unbelievable popularity as the leading event in the martial arts world, and with tremendous cross-over appeal to Japanese pro wrestling fans. Where K-1 is important within the discussion of pro wrestling is not in the results of the matches themselves, although it does appear to me to in some cases be booked like pro wrestling. It's more important in discussion as it relates to pro wrestling in promotion, such as the similar ways of hyping and creating superstars, and its success and interest level of late with a show like the Dome show exceeds the success of the hottest wrestling promotions of all-time at their peak. For Japan, more impressive than anything is it is a company where most of the dominant top stars and drawing cards are foreigners. It is much close to being promoted and hyped like a wrestling promotion would build up a major spectacular than like a one-match boxing PPV event in that the name brand, K-1, is the real drawing card and not the match-ups and the fights themselves, whereas in American boxing PPV shows, it is the single main event attraction that is the draw, not the fact there is boxing or that it's a Kingvision or Arum promotion. At one point, WCW marketed K-1 events on PPV in the United States, although (UFC being the exception), trying to market something on PPV before it's established a mass audience on television to begin with is almost always not going to work. In addition, it should have appeal to wrestling fans because the idea of finding out who is the best stand-up fighter in the world, which is what K-1 is supposed to represent, appears to be largely fantasy. K-1 is also hyping its product tremendously in the U.S. within the martial arts community, buying huge color ads every month in Black Belt magazine and readying itself for a U.S. invasion with Ishii after the show talking about running a major spectacular in August 1998 in Las Vegas at either Caesar's Palace or the MGM Grand Garden Arena and will attempt to book a big-name heavyweight boxer from the U.S. to participate against a big name kickboxer, with the attempt to book George Foreman vs. Satake. Any serious study of K-1 as compared with normal kickboxing matches will find obvious the lack of defensive skills in the match which results in the incredibly high knockout rate. This makes no sense when you have such an upper echelon of fighters. In addition, it's always suspicious when things happen, like in the Nagoya Dome main event earlier this year, when a karate champion who had never fought with gloves before, Francisco Filho, knocked out the top star of the promotion, Andy Hug, with his first punch. One of the biggest media creations in the K-1 stable, Hug, shows convincing wins over the best fighters, but several first round knockout losses to fighters of a much lower calibre, such as former UFC star Patrick Smith. Clearly, many of the K-1 matches are real, including some of the tournament matches in Osaka, which makes the matches that appear to be works in the same tournament only that much more strange.

In this case, three of the four first round fights ended almost immediately. Filho knocked out Sam Greco with the first punch thrown. Hoost knocked out Jerome LeBanner in 1:15, and Hug knocked out Satake with a kick to the face in 15 seconds. The other first round match saw Peter Aerts beat Mike Bernardo in the third round with a knockout from a kick to the head. So in other words, both fighters who ended up having to do three fights on the card since they went to the finals, ended up winning their first matches by first round knockout before their semifinal matches which both went the distance leading to the finals. And after four straight first round knockouts, the semifinals and finals were all close decisions after going three rounds, which can be interpreted as weird coincidence, the final four being a shoot after the first round was worked, or a promotion trying to "protect" its top four guys in a one-night tournament. Hoost beat Filho with one judge voting it 30-30 and the other two giving Hoost a 30-29 edge. Hug beat Aerts with two judges voting it 30-28 and the other 30-29. And in the finals, Hoost beat Hug with one judge voting it 30-30 and the other two giving Hoost a 30-29 advantage.

The most ambitious attempt in recent wrestling history to create something close to a unified champion, the J Crown, has now fallen by the wayside with the announcement by New Japan Pro Wresting on 11/5 that they were going to return six of the seven J Crown title belts held by Shinjiro Otani and would retain only the company's traditional IWGP junior heavyweight title belt.

The decision was eventually going to happen at some point as when all the belts were unified at the G-1 Climax tournament in August of 1996, the promise was made that eventually New Japan would return the belts to their original promotion. Thus far, the only one of the original eight belts that was returned was the WAR International junior heavyweight title which Jushin Liger, when he held the J Crown, returned earlier this year to WAR in losing to Yuji Yasuraoka on a WAR show.

The timing of it came largely due to the World Wrestling Federation publicizing in Japan that the WWF light heavyweight title, which was one of the seven belts, was not recognized by the promotion since it was creating its own title with the same name. With the WWF wanting both its light heavyweight and junior heavyweight (a title not part of the J Crown and one that hasn't been recognized in Japan for a decade) belt back, New Japan decided to return the titles.

The UWA world junior lightweight title and Great Britain junior heavyweight title belts were to the Michinoku Pro Wrestling office, which had purchased those belts for its own company usage. The WWA junior lightweight title was returned to its owner, Gran Hamada. The NWA junior heavyweight title was returned to the Wrestle Dream Factory promotion. The NWA welterweight title was given to Negro Casas, who was in Japan for the last New Japan tour, and held that title before losing it during the J Crown tournament.

At press time, it is now back to Randy Couture as the most likely opponent for Maurice Smith on the Ultimate Japan PPV show on 12/21. While nothing is definite, it now appears Royce Gracie is likely to have his first match in two-and-a-half years on the 1/18 Pride Two show at the same Yokohama Arena.

What is penciled in at the moment is Smith vs. Couture for the title along with three other singles matches and a four-man heavyweight tournament. The single matches look to be Mark Kerr vs. Gary Goodridge, Kevin Jackson vs. the winner of the 11/29 Frank Shamrock vs. Enson Inoue match, and Vitor Belfort vs. an opponent to be announced. The heavyweight tournament looks to include Tank Abbott and Marcus Conan Silviera along with two other spots to be filled. Kimo is off the show, presumably having signed to instead appear on the Pride Two card for a higher guarantee. The promotion wants to use Japanese talent, but with Pancrase having a major show the night before (and in the same city, although at a smaller building) and RINGS in the middle of its Battle Dimension tournament, none of their talent, which would be the best name talent, would be available. Tickets for the show are scaled at $425, $250, $85, $42 and $25.

There has been a lot of talk that Kerr would face Gracie in the main event of the Pride Two show in a match with no time limit. Semaphore Entertainment Group has publicly stated that it has an exclusive world wide contract with Kerr and wouldn't allow him to work the Pride Two date, but others close to Kerr are claiming they have found a loophole in the contract which would allow him to work both shows.

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For the most up-to-date wrestling information, I can be reached every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on the Wrestling Observer Hotline (900-903-9030/99 cents per minute/children under 18 need parents permission before calling) with a recorded news update. We also have updates on all PPV events on options seven and eight. I'm on option seven 20 minutes after the completion of the show and we immediately run down the results and major angles before getting into the details of the show. We have option eight reports up later that evening to get a different perspective. The reports stay on the hotline until the next PPV show. Upcoming events covered will be 11/23 WCW World War III, 11/30 ECW November to Remember, 12/7 WWF D-Generation X, 12/21 UFC Ultimate Japan and 12/28 WCW Starrcade. On Tuesdays, option one features coverage of Nitro and option two features coverage of Raw. Other hotline reports are done by Steve Beverly (Friday, Saturday, Tuesday), Bruce Mitchell (Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday), Ron Lemieux (Sunday, Wednesday), Georgiann Makropolous (Sunday), Mike Mooneyham (Monday) and Steven Prazak (Thursday).

I also want to apologize to those of you who had problems with the hotline after the Survivor Series PPV show. I haven't been able to ascertain the reason and don't know how prevalent this was, but for some reason, some callers, but not most, in calling for the results on option seven, got a message from May. I checked the message from here several times that evening and the right message always came up. I don't know if the screw-up was due to the volume of calls (as would be expected, we set an all-time record for calls in the two hour period following the PPV show) or another malfunction. For the future if a situation like the Hart-Michaels finish occurs again for those who don't regularly call the hotline, and it probably will sometime within the next 200 or so years as a shoot and probably will be mimicked as a work a whole lot quicker than that, we have PPV rundowns on option seven which are up about 20 minutes after the completion of the show. In this case, during that first update since we did it immediately after the show, we could only offer speculation as to what happened since we didn't know for certain. Our Monday update on option one usually goes up on PPV nights at 2 a.m. Eastern time Sunday nights after PPV shows to give us time to gather post show and backstage information. In this case, due to the weirdness of the main event, we actually didn't have all the information available for that update and said we'd do a later update, and we had pretty much all the basics of what happened behind the scenes on the hotline by 1 p.m. Eastern time on 11/10. With the nature of the changes in the profession, my feeling is the hotline is going to become more and more of a factor when it comes to breaking news. During this past week it was obvious that all the information on-line regarding the Bret Hart situation came directly from Observer hotline reports by Bruce Mitchell and myself and also from the Torch hotline, much of which by third or fourth generation of repetition, ended up as misleading information as to what was reported originally, such as speculation on hotlines turning into factual information by the third or fourth generation. I just want to make a point regarding both the hotline and this newsletter and that is today's environment with the con-men mentality of those running the business wanting to fool the small percentage and cater to them as opposed to the big picture all too often, you are often not going to know fact from fiction and in that environment we'll make mistakes along the way in judgement of what is and isn't. However, when it came to the story of Hart leaving the WWF for WCW, or anything of the magnitude of that story in the future, if it's reported on the hotline as a done deal, it's a done deal not some fifth-hand rumor as was 99.9% of the speculation regarding this story. The goal in reporting here and on the hotline is not necessarily to get the story first, because the people with that goal end up being wrong so often in trying to get themselves over more than the correct information, but to get the story right. For those of you who called option seven and got the screwed up message, please send us a copy of your phone charges for 11/9 and we'll add the corresponding number of issues to your subscription to make up for it.

1997 WRESTLING OBSERVER AWARDS
It's that time again. But things are a changing. The 18th annual Wrestling Observer awards will be open for balloting after Thanksgiving. To the best of my knowledge, these are still the only pro wrestling awards that are both international in scope and covered by wrestling media throughout the world. The time frame for the awards is the period from December 1, 1996 through November 30, 1997. Anything taking place between those dates should be considered. Anything taking place before or after shouldn't be. Ballots won't be accepted until December 1, so don't mail anything about until after Thanksgiving. Ballots will be accepted through early January, so plan on mailing before Christmas because holiday mail service is pretty bad. The awards will be released in mid-January and if you've got opinions on various awards, you're encouraged to send them in as quickly as possible for the letters section, particularly now that we actually have room to print letters.

Last year we nearly restructured the awards due to the major changes going on in the wrestling industry keeping with our tradition, as most of these categories date back 15 years or more. But the business has changed and these categories have to fit within those changes. Best Babyface and Best Heel are now history, being replaced with Best Box Office draw, which is what those two categories were supposed to be about in the first place although some people still confused decibels in ring entrances with putting asses in seats. We're keeping most improved, because it's a good category but again remember that it is not for a wrestler who is getting a push for the first time as much as someone whose ring performance has shown improvement. We're dumping most unimproved, because there are enough categories already to rank on Hogan and Luger (most overrated fits the bill). We are also dumping manager of the year, because, well, nobody comes close to deserving it. Maybe some day it'll be back. We are also adding two new awards due to the changing landscape of the business, both in Category B. Combat wrestler of the year which is for wrestlers in a professional venue but to be judged on their ability and performance in reality combat events such as NHB or Pancrase. Technically some fighters for RINGS would be eligible but should only be considered in regard to their ability in legitimate matches. Combat wrestling match of the year, in which all forms of legitimate NHB and pro wrestling matches are eligible as again, some RINGS matches would be eligible and most wouldn't. While it is hard to make fair comparisons between different styles of working, as how to you fairly compare American theatrical style with Japanese strong style or Mexican Lucha Libre style or shoot style, but at least in all of those styles the primary goal is to entertain the audience so they're all comparable when it comes to the ultimate goal, even if they go about achieving it differently. However, in a true shoot, the primary goal is to win and entertainment, which still should be a factor because you are talking about professional fighting, becomes secondary so it's not fair to compare it with a worked match. The other change is we've moved the Best Wrestling card of the year award from Category B to Category A since the business now more than ever revolves around major shows.

"CATEGORY A" AWARDS. PICK A FIRST, SECOND AND A THIRD PLACE FINISHER IN EACH CATEGORY. POINTS WILL BE AWARDED ON A 5-3-2 BASIS. THE WINNER OF THE AWARD IS DETERMINED BY TOTAL POINTS.

1. WRESTLER OF THE YEAR - This category is open to all forms of pro wrestling. This is for a combination of being both an important and influential wrestler in a positive manner in the business over the past year, combined with being a great performer in the ring during the same period. Last year's top three were Kenta Kobashi, Shawn Michaels and Mitsuharu Misawa.

2. MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER - This is based on ring work as the only criterion and by work, that means "work." Simply, the three best workers in the world on a consistent basis over the past year. Drawing power and charisma shouldn't be a factor. Last year's top three were Rey Misterio Jr., Manami Toyota and Kenta Kobashi.

3. BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW - A new category based on drawing power and drawing big houses over the past year. Ring work shouldn't be considered in this category.

4. FEUD OF THE YEAR - This should be based on a combination of having a compelling storyline along with having great matches on a consistent basis that strengthened the box office. Last year's top three were WCW vs. NWO, Undertaker vs. Mankind and New Japan vs. UWFI.

5. TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR - For the best working regular tag team during the previous year. Last year's top three were Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama, Eliminators and Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue.

6. MOST IMPROVED - This is based on having made the biggest strides in ring work over the balloting period. This is not for someone who has always had the ability but is being given their first push. Last year's top three were Diamond Dallas Page, Taka Michinoku and Jun Akiyama.

7. BEST ON INTERVIEWS - Who has given the best interviews on a consistent basis over the past year. Reputation from previous years shouldn't be taken into account and it should be based on work over the entire year rather than one or two great interviews. Last year's top three were Steve Austin, Shane Douglas and Ric Flair.

8. MOST CHARISMATIC - What wrestler has to do the least to get the most out of it. Last year's top three were Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair and Perro Aguayo.

9. BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER - This is for having the ability to use a wide variety of high level of technical wrestling ability within the context of putting together great worked matches. Last year's top three were Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit and Shinjiro Otani.

10. BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL AWARD - This is for the wrestler who uses brawling tactics to put together the best matches during the previous year. Last year's top three were Mankind, Tommy Dreamer and The Gangstas.

11. BEST FLYING WRESTLER - This is for the wrestler who does the most innovative and solidly-executed flying maneuvers within the context of putting together great wrestling matches. Last year's top three were Rey Misterio Jr., Great Sasuke and Sabu.

12. MOST OVERRATED WRESTLER - The wrestler who gets the biggest push despite lacking in-ring ability. Last year's top three were Hulk Hogan, Sycho Sid and Lex Luger.

13. MOST UNDERRATED WRESTLER - The wrestler with the most ability who, for whatever reason, doesn't get a push commensurate with their talent. This should be based on work during the past year and not something based on a business reputation for being a great worker garnered years ago. Last year's top three were Leif Cassidy (Al Snow), Chris Candido and Psicosis.

14. BEST PROMOTION - Should be based primarily on which group puts together the best live and television product on a consistent basis, and secondarily, the ability to sell that product to a high level at the box office. Theoretically the top pick should be a company at or near the top in both categories. Last year's top three were New Japan Pro Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling.

15. BEST WEEKLY TELEVISION SHOW - Weekly television shows are eligible, not specials or monthlies. This is for the best consistent week-to-week show, not for a specific episode of a specific program. Last year's top three were Extreme Championship Wrestling, New Japan World Pro Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling 30.

16. MATCH OF THE YEAR - Pick the three best matches, in order, from the time period listed. Last year's top three were Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Steve Williams & Johnny Ace from 6/7 in Tokyo, Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera from 3/9 in Philadelphia, and Dick Togo & Mens Teioh & Shiryu & Taka Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki vs. Gran Hamada & Super Delfin & Tiger Mask & Gran Naniwa & Masato Yakushiji from 10/10 in Tokyo.

17. ROOKIE OF THE YEAR - This is based on ring performance and not how someone is pushed. By the standards of the category, a rookie wrestler is someone who hasn't had a wrestling job with a company that runs regular shows or worked regularly on indie shows prior to September 1, 1996. Last year's top three were The Giant, Yuki Kondo and Rocky Maivia. Among the top candidates this year are Don Frye, Naoya Ogawa, Kazuyuki Fujita, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Jason Godsey, Brackus, Chris Chetti, Mr. Aguila, Bulldog Raines and Nick Dinsmore. Bill Goldberg, because his debut as a regular for WCW was in September, would not be eligible this year but would be eligible for next year.

18. BEST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER - We are changing the rule here in that all announcers are eligible, not just lead announcers since even though the heel color guy role exists as a throwback to the 80s in WWF and WCW, it has really become passe and the role isn't nearly as important in the chemistry of a broadcast. Last year's top three in this category were Joey Styles, Jim Ross and Mike Tenay. The top three in a color commentary category were Jerry Lawler, Tenay and Larry Zbyszko.

19. WORST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER - All announcers are also eligible for this award. Last year's top three were Dusty Rhodes, Eric Bischoff and Lee Marshall.

20. BEST MAJOR WRESTLING CARD OF THE YEAR - This should be a major show rather than a typical house show from the promotion. Last year's winner was the WAR Super J Cup Second Stage show on December 13, 1995.

"CATEGORY B" AWARDS - PICK ONE IN EACH CATEGORY. WINNERS CHOSEN ON BASIS ON FIRST PLACE VOTES.

1. WORST MAJOR WRESTLING CARD OF THE YEAR (WCW Uncensored on March 24 in Tupelo last year's winner)

2. BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER (Ultimo Dragon's running Liger bomb last year's winner)

3. MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC (WWF tease and usage of new Razor Ramon and Diesel were last year's winner)

4. READERS PERSONAL FAVORITE WRESTLER (Ric Flair was last year's winner)

5. READERS LEAST FAVORITE WRESTLER (Hulk Hogan was last year's winner)

6. WORST WRESTLER/ROOKIES INELIGIBLE (Loch Ness was last year's winner)

7. WORST TAG TEAM (Godwinns last year's winners)

8. WORST WEEKLY TELEVISION SHOW (AWF Warriors of Wrestling last year's winner)

9. WORST MANAGER (Sonny Onoo last year's winner)

10. WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR (Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Meng & Barbarian & Kevin Sullivan & Ze Gangsta & Ultimate Solution & Lex Luger on March 24 in Tupelo last year's winner)

11. WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR (Big Bubba vs. John Tenta last year's winner)

12. WORST ON INTERVIEWS (Ahmed Johnson last year's winner)

13. WORST PROMOTION (American Wrestling Federation last year's winner)

14. BEST BOOKER (Paul Heyman last year's winner)

15. PROMOTER OF THE YEAR (Riki Choshu last year's winner)

16. SHOOT ATHLETE OF THE YEAR (New Category)

17. SHOOT MATCH OF THE YEAR (New Category)

18. BEST GIMMICK (NWO last year's winner)

19. WORST GIMMICK (WWF introducing new Razor, Diesel and Double J last year's winner)

20. MOST EMBARRASSING WRESTLER (This is for the wrestler who, when he appears on television and you have friends of family in the room with you, makes you the most embarrassed to be a wrestling fan. Hulk Hogan last year's winner)

MAJOR EVENTS WRESTLING CALENDAR 11/14 TO 12/14

11/14 WWF Pittsburgh Civic Arena

11/15 WWF New York Madison Square Garden (Undertaker vs. Michaels vs. Austin)

11/15 All Japan Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Kawada & Taue vs. Hansen & Duncum)

11/15 Kingdom Hakodate Live (Kakihara vs. Patrick Smith)

11/16 WWF Baltimore Arena (Undertaker vs. Helmsley)

11/16 Pancrase Kobe Fashion Mart Atrium (Kondo vs. Takahashi)

11/17 WCW Monday Nitro tapings Cincinnati, OH Riverfront Coliseum

11/19 Kingdom Sapporo Live Nakajima Sports Center (Kanehara vs. Patrick Smith)

11/20 RINGS Osaka Chuo Gymnasium (Han vs. Vrij)

11/22 WWF Greensboro, NC Coliseum (Undertaker vs. Michaels)

11/23 WCW World War III PPV Auburn Hills, MI The Palace (Three-ring Battle Royal)

11/23 All Japan Sendai Miyagi Sports Center (Misawa & Akiyama vs. Kobashi & Ace)

11/23 All Japan Women Nagoya Aiichi Gymnasium (Hotta vs. Toyota)

11/24 WCW Monday Nitro tapings Saginaw, MI Civic Center

11/24 WWF Raw is War/Shotgun tapings Fayetteville, NC Cumberland County Coliseum (Undertaker & Austin & LOD vs. Hart Foundation)

11/25 WWF Raw is War/Shotgun tapings Roanoke, VA Civic Center (Undertaker & Austin & LOD vs. Hart Foundation)

11/27 All Japan Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center (Misawa & Akiyama vs. Hayabusa & Shinzaki)

11/28 WWF Cleveland Gund Arena (Undertaker vs. Helmsley)

11/28 All Japan Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center (Misawa & Akiyama vs. Kawada & Taue)

11/29 WWF Boston Fleet Center (Undertaker vs. Michaels)

11/29 Shooto Vale Tudo Open '97 Tokyo Bay NK Hall (Frank Shamrock vs. Enson Inoue)

11/29 Russian Absolute tournament Moscow, Russia

11/30 ECW November to Remember PPV Monaca, PA Golden Dome (Bigelow vs. Douglas)

11/30 New Japan Nagoya Aiichi Gym (tag team tournament)

12/1 WCW Monday Nitro tapings Knoxville, TN Civic Coliseum

12/3 All Japan Niigata (Kobashi & Ace vs. Hayabusa & Shinzaki)

12/5 All Japan Tokyo Budokan Hall (Real World Tag League tournament finals)

12/6 ECW Philadelphia ECW Arena

12/6 World Caged Combat Championships Brisbane, Australia (one-night tournament)

12/7 WWF Degeneration X PPV Springfield, MA Civic Center (Michaels vs. Shamrock)

12/8 WCW Monday Nitro tapings Buffalo, NY Marine Midland Arena

12/8 New Japan Osaka Furitsu Gym (tag team tournament finals)

12/8 WWF Raw is War/Shotgun tapings Portland, ME Cumberland County Civic Center

12/9 WWF Raw is War/Shotgun tapings Durham, NH Whittemore Center

12/14 WWF Memphis Pyramid

RESULTS
10/31 Arecibo, Puerto Rico (WWC - 700): Lightning Kid b Steve Corino, Death match: Rico Suave b El Profe, Black Boy b Victor the Bodyguard, La Ley b Destroyer, Ricky Santana b Skull Von Crush-DQ, Shane the Glamour Boy DCOR Invader #1, Razor Ramon (Rick Bogner) & Dutch Mantel b Carlos Colon & Rey Gonzalez

10/31 Dallas, TX (CWA): Kit Carson b J.R., Devon Michaels b Brian Adias-DQ, Mark Von Erich & Ced-Man b Black Bart & Hanging Judge, Terry Garvin b Bart-DQ, Action Jackson & Warrior 2000 b King Parsons & Al Jackson-DQ

11/1 Humacao, Puerto Rico (WWC): Black Boy b Victor the Bodyguard, Lightning Kid b Mohammad Hussein, Ricky Santana b Skull Von Crush-DQ, Carlos Colon DDQ Razor Ramon, Invader #1 b Shane the Glamour Boy, Universal title: Rey Gonzalez b Dutch Mantel-DQ

11/1 Fort Lewis, WA (World Wrestling Alliance - 700): Col. DeBeers b Buddy Wayne, Timothy Flowers b Sumito, Honky Tonk Man b Doink the Clown, Don Juan b Ken Johnson, Jimmy Snuka b Nailz, Bushwhackers b Head Shrinkers

11/1 Largo, FL (Championship Pro Wrestling - 250): Italian Stallion & Lionheart & Sharpshooter b Mortal Decay & Suicide Blond & Mark Austin, Storm & Mike Badd b Wizard & Art Strong, Southern Posse b Con Air, Cuban Assassin b Navy Seal, Tank Plitzkin DCOR O.G. Scarface, Brett Sawyer b Brian Knobbs-DQ

11/2 Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico (WWC): Black Boy b Victor the Bodyguard, Lightning Kid b Mohammad Hussein, Rico Suave b La Ley, Ricky Santana b Skull Von Crush-DQ, Invader #1 b Shane the Glamour Boy, Carlos Colon DCOR Razor Ramon, Universal title: Rey Gonzalez b Dutch Mantel-DQ

11/3 Fukushima (Michinoku Pro - 380): Wellington Wilkens Jr. b Pero Ruso, Dick Togo b Magic Man, Jinsei Shinzaki b Super Boy, Great Sasuke & Super Delfin b Yone Genjin & Tiger Mask, Mens Teioh & Shoichi Funaki d Masato Yakushiji & Naohiro Hoshikawa

11/4 Bethlehem, PA (WCW - 2,078): Disco Inferno b Alex Wright, Harlem Heat b Public Enemy, Scotty Riggs b Stevie Richards, Raven b Riggs, Eddie Guerrero b Chris Jericho, Rey Misterio Jr. b Dean Malenko, Ric Flair & Steve McMichael b Konnan & Curt Hennig-DQ

11/4 Gosen (All Japan women): Momoe Nakanishi b Miyuki Fujii, Miho Wakizawa b Sachie Nishibori, Kaoru Ito b Nakanishi, Takako Inoue b Emi Motokawa, Yumiko Hotta & Kumiko Maekawa b Manami Toyota & Nanae Takahashi

11/4 Aizu Wakamatsu (Big Japan): Shunme Matsuzaki b Yuichi Taniguchi, Neftaly b Aya Koyama & Miho Kawasaki, Masayoshi Motegi & Makoto Saito b Toyonori Fujita & Gennosuke Kobayashi, Takashi Ishikawa b Shadow VII, Yoshihiro Tajiri b Zumbido, Kendo Nagasaki & Kishin Kawabata b Ryushi Yamakawa & Tomoaki Honma, Barbed wire board street fight: Great Pogo & Shadow WX b Great Nakamaki & Takashi Okano

11/4 Noheji (Michinoku Pro - 286): Wellington Wilkens Jr. b Pero Ruso, Mens Teioh b Magic Man, Jinsei Shinzaki b Shoichi Funaki, Super Boy & Dick Togo b Tiger Mask & Yone Genjin, Great Sasuke & Super Delfin b Naohiro Hoshikawa & Masato Yakushiji

11/4 Louisville, GA (Kentuckiana Championship Wrestling - 431): Jerry Faith won Battle Royal, Shooting Starz b Centerfolds, Mike Samples b Ric Hogan, Steve Marino DCOR Bill Marino, Terry Bull b Corporal Robinson, Steven Dunn b Paul Diamond, Sean Venom b Flash Flanagan, Blaze b Jay Thunder

11/4 Louisville, KY (IWA - 150): American Kickboxer b Danny Dee, Rollin Hard b Cash Flow, Mad Man Pondo b Debbie Combs, Bull Pain won triangle match over Tracy Smothers and Salvatore Sincere to become IWA champion, Paul Diamond b Flash Flanagan, Steven Dunn & Ox Harley b Axl & Ian Rotten

11/5 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Battlarts - 1,500): Ikuto Hidaka b Mamoru Okamoto, Carl Greco b Takeshi Ono, Yuki Ishikawa b Satoshi Yoneyama, Wataru Sakata b Katsumi Usuda, UWA middleweight title: Minoru Tanaka b Masao Orihara, Alexander Otsuka b Daisuke Ikeda

11/5 Futaba (Big Japan): Takashi Okano b Shadow VII, Neftaly b Aya Koyama & Miho Kawasaki, Yuichi Taniguchi b Tomoaki Honma, Toyonri Fujita & Zumbido b Masayoshi Motegi & Makoto Saito, Kendo Nagasaki & Yoshihiro Tajiri & Ryushi Yamakawa b Takashi Ishikawa & Kishin Kawabata & Shunme Matsuzaki, Barbed wire board street fight: Great Pogo & Shadow WX b Great Nakamaki & Gennosuke Kobayashi

11/5 Sanjyo (All Japan women): Nanae Takahashi b Miho Wakizawa, Sachie Nishibori b Miyuki Fujii, Kumiko Maekawa b Takahashi, Takako Inoue b Momoe Nakanishi, Manami Toyota & Kaoru Ito b Emi Motokawa & Yumiko Hotta

11/6 Ichinohe (Michinoku Pro - 130): Wellington Wilkens Jr. b Masaru Seno, Naohiro Hoshikawa & Masato Yakushiji b Pero Ruso & Yone Genjin, Jinsei Shinzaki b Magic Man, Tiger Mask & Super Delfin & Gran Hamada & Great Sasuke b Super Boy & Shoichi Funaki & Mens Teioh & Dick Togo

11/6 Joetsu (All Japan women): Miho Wakizawa b Miyuki Fujii, Momoe Nakanishi b Sachie Nishibori, Manami Toyota b Emi Motokawa, Yumiko Hotta b Kumiko Maekawa, Takako Inoue & Kaoru Ito b Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi

11/6 Tokyo (LLPW - 253): Michiko Nagashima b Keiko Aono, Mizuki Endo b Mikiko Futagami, Noriyo Tateno b Miho Watabe, Shinobu Kandori & Yasha Kurenai b Harley Saito & Carol Midori, Eagle Sawai & Sayori Okino b Rumi Kazama & Michiko Omukai

11/6 Albany, GA (Independent): T.C. Sledge b Cowboy Red, Bambi b Debbie Combs, Bulldog Raines b Ruckus, Cherokee Warrior b Power Ranger

11/6 State College, PA (Top Rope Productions): Little Running Bear b Hurricane Holmes, Sweet Georgie Love b Chicago Heat, Cousin Luke b Mad Russian, John Rambo & Hungarian Barbarian b Lumberjacks, Jimmy Snuka b Metal Maniac, Bad Crew b Samoan Gangstas-DQ, Perfect Creation b Sweety Daddy Love, Samu b King Kong Bundy

11/7 Toronto Sky Dome (WWF - 14,374): Tiger Ali Singh b Miguel Perez, D.Lo Brown & Kama Mustafa b Head Bangers, Ahmed Johnson b Rocky Maivia, WWF tag titles: Legion of Doom b Godwinns, Vader NC Faarooq, Undertaker & Steve Austin & Mankind b Bret Hart & Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart

11/7 Kansas City, KS (WCW - 2,865 sellout): Ernest Miller b Brad Armstrong, Ray Traylor b David Taylor, Rey Misterio Jr. b Juventud Guerrera, Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael b Meng & Barbarian, Eddie Guerrero b Dean Malenko, WCW tag titles: Steiners b Harlem Heat, U.S. title: Ric Flair b Curt Hennig-DQ

11/7 New Britain, CT (ECW - 650): ECW title: Bam Bam Bigelow b Mikey Whipwreck *1/2, ECW tag titles: Tracy Smothers & Little Guido b Axl Rotten & Balls Mahoney **3/4, ECW TV title: Taz b Jerry Lynn **, Rob Van Dam b Al Snow ***1/4, Justin Credible b Erin O'Grady, Chris Candido & Lance Storm b Chris Chetti & Spike Dudley **, Tommy Dreamer b Shane Douglas ***3/4, John Kronus & New Jack b Buh Buh Ray & D-Von Dudley **1/2

11/7 Osaka (JWP): Sari Osumi b Aya Koyama, Cutie Suzuki b Kanako Motoya, Devil Masami b Commando Boirshoi, Tomoko Miyaguchi & Kyoko Inoue b Tomoko Kuzumi & Hikari Fukuoka, Rieko Amano & Mayumi Ozaki b Motoya & Dynamite Kansai

11/7 Shibata (All Japan women): Miho Wakizawa b Sachie Nishibori, Nanae Takahashi b Miyuki Fujii, Emi Motokawa b Wakizawa, Manami Toyota b Momoe Nakanishi, Takako Inoue & Yumiko Hotta b Kaoru Ito & Kumiko Maekawa

11/7 Gainesville, FL (NWA - 400 sellout): Mike Marcello won triangular match over Jett Jaguar and Billy Kidd, Southern Posse b Double Impact, Hercules Hernandez b Jerry Flynn, Dory Funk b Steve Keirn, Adrian Street b Fire Cat (Brady Boone), NWA title: Dan Severn b Typhoon

11/7 Hayward, CA (All Pro Wrestling - 97): Donovan Morgan won Battle Royal, Jason Clay b Chicano Flame, Ty Dalton b Deno Blade, Frank Murdoch b Rick Turner, Boom Boom Comini & Maxx Justice b Morgan & Chris Cole, Elijah Wisdom & Truth & Tony Jones b Robert Thompson & Vic & Dic Grimes, Michael Modest b Steve Rizzono

11/7 Dallas, TX (CWA): Jason Galloway b J.R., Hanging Judge b ?, Warrior 2000 b Brian Adias-DQ, Mike Blackheart b Mark Von Erich, Action Jackson b Al Jackson-DQ

11/7 Miami, FL (Sunshine Wrestling Federation - 350): Bobby Rogers b Flex Armstrong, Snot Dudley b Shane Wild, Anthony Adonis b Hack Myers-DQ, Mike D'Angelo b Bobby Davis, Riptide & Malia Hosaka b Liz Chase & Luna Vachon, Joe DeFuria b Vampire Warrior, Chief White Eagle b Vladimir Koloff

11/8 Philadelphia ECW Arena (ECW - 1,100): Mikey Whipwreck b Spike Dudley, Justin Credible b Chris Chetti, Blue Meanie b Jason, Al Snow b Paul Diamond, Chris Candido & Lance Storm b Tommy Rogers & Jerry Lynn, ECW title: Bam Bam Bigelow b Shane Douglas, Axl Rotten won four corners match over Tracy Smothers, John Kronus and D-Von Dudley, Tommy Dreamer & Taz b Sabu & Rob Van Dam

11/8 Detroit Cobo Arena (WWF - 7,286): D.Lo Brown & Kama Mustafa b Head Bangers, Ahmed Johnson b Rocky Maivia, WWF tag titles: Legion of Doom b Godwinns, Ken Shamrock b Miguel Perez, Vader b Faarooq-DQ, Undertaker & Steve Austin & Mankind b Bret Hart & Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart

11/8 Nishino (Michinoku Pro - 541 sellout): Naohiro Hoshikawa b Magic Man, Jinsei Shinzaki b Yone Genjin, Mens Teioh & Shoichi Funaki b Tiger Mask & Gran Hamada, Great Sasuke & Super Delfin b Super Boy & Dick Togo

11/8 Yamaouchi (Battlarts - 3,511 free show): Yone Genjin b Ikuto Hidaka, Katsumi Usuda b Mamoru Okamoto, Minoru Tanaka b Takeshi Ono, Yuki Ishikawa & Alexander Otsuka b Carl Greco & Daisuke Ikeda

11/8 Keyser, WV (Mid Eastern Wrestling Federation): Adam Flash b Jimmy Jannetty, Gino Caruso b Nick Maddocks, Tommy Hawk & Pit Fighter b Lucifer & Switchblade, Jimmy Snuka b Julio Sanchez, King Kaluha b Christian York, Cue Ball Carmichael b Doink the Clown, Salvatore Sincere b Corporal Punishment

11/8 Portland, OR (Portland Wrestling): Chad d Sumito, Bart Sawyer b Tony Cosenza, C.W. Bergstrom & Lou Andrews b Chuck Gordy & Ritchie Magnett, Matt Borne & Josh Wilcox b Bruiser Brian & Confusion

11/8 Lima, OH (Global Wrestling Alliance - 400): Brian Ireland b Devon Daniels, Jose Perez b Dexter Dementia, Mr. Main Event b Scott Stone, Elvis Elliot b Alexis Machine, Kasey Thunder b G-Mo, Larry Destiny b Calavera Cortez, Crusher Kline b Brian Fury-DQ

11/8 Nashville, TN (Music City Wrestling - 400): Bobby Brawnz b Ken Arden, Trailer Park Trash b Shane Eden, Lone Eagle b Little Astro, Terry Golden b Jamie Dundee, Frenchy Riviera (Keith Arden) b Nick Dinsmore, First blood match: Doug Gilbert b Nick Dinsmore, Flash Flanagan b Wolfie D

11/8 Hamamatsu (Gaea): Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima b Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura, Toshie Uematsu b Sonoko Kato, Toshiyo Yamada & Rina Ishii b Kaoru & Sakura Hirota

11/8 Nagaoka (All Japan women): Miho Wakizawa b Miyuki Fujii, Nanae Takahashi b Sachie Nishibori, Kumiko Maekawa b Emi Motokawa, Takako Inoue b Takahashi, Yumiko Hotta & Kaoru Ito b Manami Toyota & Momoe Nakanishi

11/9 Sendai (Michinoku Pro - 990 sellout): Wellington Wilkens Jr. b Masaru Seno, Super Boy & Dick Togo b Pero Ruso & Yone Genjin, Jinsei Shinzaki b Magic Man, Masato Yakushiji & Gran Hamada b Tiger Mask & Naohiro Hoshikawa, Great Sasuke & Super Delfin b Mens Teioh & Shoichi Funaki to win tag team tournament

11/9 Akita (All Japan women): Miyuki Fujii b Sachie Nishibori, Momoe Nakanishi b Miho Wakizawa, Emi Motokawa b Nakanishi, Takako Inoue b Kumiko Maekawa, Yumiko Hotta & Manami Toyota b Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito

11/9 Tamba (JWP): Tomoko Miyaguchi b Sari Osumi, Rieko Amano b Nana Fujimura, Hikari Fukuoka & Kanako Motoya b Tomoko Kuzumi & Aya Koyama, Mayumi Ozaki b Cutie Suzuki, Devil Masami & Commando Boirshoi b Dynamite Kansai & Miyaguchi

11/9 Louisville, KY (Kentuckiana Championship Wrestling): Corporal Robinson b Jay Thunder, Vic the Bruiser b Destroyer, Blaze b Frenchie Riviera, Terry Bull b Flash Flanagan, Reno Riggins b Sean Venom, Jerry Faith & Troy Haste & Mike Samples b Ken & John Arden & Tower of Doom

11/10 Memphis, TN (WCW Monday Nitro tapings - 8,879 sellout/8,091 paid): Steven Regal & David Taylor b Harlem Heat, Chris Jericho b Disco Inferno, Glacier b Barbarian, Yuji Nagata b Alex Wright, WCW TV title: Perry Saturn b Chris Benoit, WCW cruiserweight title: Eddie Guerrero b Rey Misterio Jr. to win title, Ray Traylor b Randy Savage-DQ, U.S. title: Diamond Dallas Page b Curt Hennig-DQ, Lex Luger b Ric Flair-DQ

11/10 Ottawa, Ontario (WWF Raw is War/Shotgun tapings - 8,209): Ahmed Johnson b Marc Mero-DQ, Taka Michinoku b Devon Storm **1/4, Head Bangers b Recon & Sniper, Handicap bunkhouse match: Jesse Jammes & Billy Gunn b Blackjack Bradshaw, Undertaker NC Kama Mustafa, Hunter Hearst Helmsley b Ken Shamrock

11/10 Sapporo (Fuyuki Gun/JD): Funk Suzuki b Sachie Abe, Kazuko Fujiwara & Yuki Lee b Alda Moreno & Chikako Shiratori, Cooga & Ryura b Kyoko Inoue & Sumiko Sakai, Super Leather b The Gladiator-DQ, Jaguar Yokota & Yuko Kosugi b Lioness Asuka & Ryura, Hiromichi Fuyuki & Gedo & Jado b Mr. Gannosuke & Yukihiro Kanemura & Hido

11/10 Osaka (JWP): Devil Masami b Sari Osumi, Mayumi Ozaki b Boirshoi Kid, Hikari Fukuoka b Cutie Suzuki, JWP jr. title: Tomoko Miyaguchi b Tomoko Kuzumi, Dynamite Kansai & Suzuki & Boirshoi b Masami & Fukuoka & Rieko Amano

11/10 Niigata (All Japan women): Miho Wakizawa b Sachie Nishibori, Nanae Takahashi b Miyuki Fujii, Kaoru Ito b Kumiko Maekawa, Yumiko Hotta b Emi Motokawa, Manami Toyota & Takako Inoue b Momoe Nakanishi & Takahashi

Special thanks to: Trent Van Drisse, Keith Barbaro, Sean Pascoe, Paul Hilchen, John DeGarmo, Bruce Grummert, Howard Brody, James Titus, Donny B, Ron Lemieux, Georgiann Makropolous, Bert Prentice, John DeGarmo, Roland Alexander, Bill D'Anna, Bob Garst, Manuel Gonzalez, Dan Parris, Andrew Ebbeskotte, David Rude, Marcus Watkins, Jim Thompson, Bernie Siegel, Chuck Morris

JAPANESE TELEVISION RUNDOWN

11/1 NEW JAPAN: 1. Koji Kanemoto pinned El Samurai in 17:53 after a Tiger suplex. The match aired from the 10:00 mark on and was an excellent match combining New Japan style and even throwing some Vale Tudo in. ****; 2. Jushin Liger & Norio Honaga & Kendo Ka Shin beat Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Negro Casas & Shinjiro Otani in 13:58. The second half only aired on television. Casas already has his hair grown back from the haircut in September in the Santo match. It turned into a really good match ending with Liger pinning Casas after a running Liger bomb. There was a great near fall just before the finish with Casas using a La Magistral. ***3/4; 3. Masahiro Chono & Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto & Michiyoshi Ohara beat Tatsumi Fujinami & Akira Nogami & Kengo Kimura & Kuniaki Kobayashi in 12:03. The last 8:00 aired on television. It didn't stink but there wasn't much to it. Match was mainly a backdrop for Chono doing his angle with Goto and Ohara regarding joining the NWO. Goto had Kobayashi pinned using his back suplex when Chono jumped in the ring and threw Goto out, and then put Kobayashi in the STF for the submission. *1/4; 4. Keiji Muto & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Michael Wallstreet & NWO Sting beat Shinya Hashimoto & Kensuke Sasaki & Tadao Yasuda & Kazuo Yamazaki in 14:14 when Muto used the figure four on Yasuda for the submission. Sting's pec implants look even more unnatural now than ever before. Tenzan was really good in carrying the match for his team again. Largely due to Tenzan, it turned into a good match, although Muto and Yamazaki worked well together. ***

11/3 NEW JAPAN: 1. Muto & Chono beat Fujinami & Genichiro Tenryu in 21:33. This was the Fukuoka Dome show. Fujinami & Tenryu had a great pinwheel show for a ring entrance. Not much to say about the match ending with Chono using the STF on Fujinami. *3/4; 2. Naoya Ogawa beat Erwin Vreeker of Holland with an armbar submission in 3:19. Vreeker was a guy built like a powerlifter billed as a kickboxer but it was clear he had limited if any kickboxing experience. He was totally blown up before the finish and looked absolutely horrible and Ogawa is getting exposed almost every time out now working with inexperienced foes. In hindsight, Hashimoto created a miracle getting those two good matches out of him. A worst match of the year candidate. -*1/2; 3. Hashimoto beat Humbert Numrich, another kickboxer from Holland in 1:04 of round two using a headlock choke submission (same finisher as Mark Coleman). Numrich was at least passable and the match was watchable. Actually Numrich was okay considering it was his first pro wrestling match. *; 4. Sasaki pinned Riki Choshu in 11:24 after a Northern lights bomb and lariat. They had a good storyline with the teacher vs. student deal and built it up well on television with still photos from the mid-80s of Choshu teaching Sasaki. Match was okay, but never really got as dramatic as the pre-match hype. Both mainly traded lariats. Sasaki's punches looked bad. Choshu again did his superplex where ref Masao Hattori holds his butt to help his balance. I don't know why Choshu always does that spot because it looks so ridiculous. Aside from that the match was a little better than average. **1/4

OBSERVER 1997 MATCH QUALITY RATINGS

Based on matches covered in the Observer from January 1, 1997 through the November 10, 1997 issue of the Observer (based on three or more singles or tag team matches on major shows this year)

Singles: 1. Koji Kanemoto 4.38; 2. Toshiaki Kawada 4.31; 3. Kenta Kobashi 4.30; 4. Mitsuharu Misawa 4.19; 5. El Samurai 4.15; 6. Jushin Liger 3.96; 7. Shinjiro Otani 3.92; 8. Taka Michinoku 3.92; 9. Eddie Guerrero 3.90; 10. Ultimo Dragon 3.89; 11. Great Sasuke 3.83; 12. Bret Hart 3.80; 13. Steve Austin 3.70; 14. Shawn Michaels 3.69; 15. Dean Malenko 3.50; 16. Rey Misterio Jr. 3.33; 17. Hiroyoshi Tenzan 3.29; 18. Chris Benoit 3.05; 19. Kensuke Sasaki 2.95; 20. Shinya Hashimoto 2.90; 21. Undertaker 2.85; 22. Syxx 2.83; 23. Kazuo Yamazaki 2.75; Owen Hart 2.75; Ken Shamrock 2.75; Vader 2.75; 27. Randy Savage 2.67; Shiro Koshinaka 2.67; 29. Taz 2.58; 30. Mankind 2.46; 31. Diamond Dallas Page 2.38; 32. Hunter Hearst Helmsley 2.29; 33. Marcus Bagwell 2.25; 34. Alex Wright 2.17; 35. Ric Flair 2.08; Prince Iaukea 2.08; Steven Regal 2.08; 38. Keiji Muto 2.04; 39. Masahiro Chono 1.88; 40. Don Frye 1.75; 41. Naoya Ogawa 1.70; 42. Goldust 1.65; 43. Jeff Jarrett 1.60; 44. Roddy Piper 1.50; 45. Rocky Maivia 1.25; 46. Scott Norton 1.13; 47. Satoru Sayama 1.08; 48. Faarooq 1.05; 49. Ahmed Johnson 0.88; 50. Lex Luger 0.83; 51. The Giant 0.75; Steve McMichael 0.75; 53. Glacier 0.67; 54. Hulk Hogan 0.44; 55. Rockabilly 0.42; 56. Crush 0.33; 57. Savio Vega 0.25

Tag teams: 1. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 3.56; 2. Satoshi Kojima & Manabu Nakanishi 3.00; Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace 3.00; 4. Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura 2.95; Kensuke Sasaki & Kazuo Yamazaki 2.95; 6. Great Muta & Masahiro Chono 2.94; 7. Kevin Nash & Scott Hall 2.44; 8. Harlem Heat 2.25; 9. Owen Hart & British Bulldog 2.17; 10. Rick & Scott Steiner 2.13; 11. The Giant & Lex Luger 1.83; 12. Legion of Doom 0.50; 13. Godwinns 0.25

Final notes: Due to time constraints of deadlines and in getting the lead story written and trying to do a complete job on what over the long haul will be a far more important story, the reviewing promotions for the regular news will have to be held off until next week.

In last week's Observer in the lead story, the article listed as being a letter by Bret Hart to Shawn Michaels in the Calgary Sun was, unbeknownst to us, not exactly as was stated. Hart wrote the column that appeared in the Sun which was very similar, in fact, for the most part word-for-word what was listed here. However, the most inflammatory remarks were not in the newspaper and how we got them is somewhat of a mystery to begin with. The version here was circulated on-line as his Sun column, and sent to me and printed earlier that week in one other newsletter, due to the somewhat shocking nature of what Hart allegedly had written that week in the newspaper. Hart's actual column was very critical of Michaels, but far less inflammatory.

Austin will be meeting with two different doctors on 11/20 for yet another word on his neck.

Add the Astrodome in Houston to the Superdome, Georgia Dome and Alamo Dome for shows WCW will be running in January and February. All the buildings will be cut down to basketball configurations rather than, as New Japan does, booking for an entire stadium type set-up.

Hogan, Savage, Page, Flair, Disco Inferno and Rey Misterio Jr. appeared on NBC's Friday Night Videos on 10/31.

WCW is thinking seriously about doing a cruiserweight tournament over several weeks with round-robin rules similar to the Japanese tour-long tournaments. The winner would be No. 1 contender for Eddie Guerrero's title. Dean Malenko came up with the idea and would be in charge of booking it Japanese style where the results stay fairly even.

WCW is also going to do a Tough Man division with the likes of Benoit, Finlay, Goldberg, McMichael, Meng and others including creating a World championship in the division.

Gorilla Monsoon's condition continues to improve and he may be strong enough for them to perform his needed heart surgery this week.

Sports Illustrated is working on a story about the Von Erich family.

Phil LaFon was arrested on 11/5 after a domestic dispute in Calgary. It was a really strange situation as basically someone came to his house looking for a fight over a woman, both, unknown to the other, were carrying a gun, LaFon pulled his first and had the guy on the ground with the gun in his mouth crying for mercy. At that point the woman, who didn't know what was going on, came over and stabbed the other party. LaFon dropped his gun to stop the woman from slashing the guy's throat and wound up fighting the guy and it was pretty one-sided. In the melee, a gun went off, neighbors called police and they arrived with SWAT helmets and dogs. LaFon was arrested for assault with intent to do bodily harm and the girl was arrested for firing a firearm within city limits. He has a court date on 12/22.

WCW still not only wants Rey Misterio Jr. to unmask, but also Juventud Guerrera.

Harley Race worked the WCW house show on 11/7 in Kansas City. Before the show, Race and Bill Kirsten, who was the TV announcer for Bob Geigel during the 70s and early 80s, were introduced to a huge standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 2,865 at Memorial Hall, the building Race headlined for 15 years. Later in the show, Booker T ran down Race, who came to ringside and interfered costing Heat their match with Steiners. In the main event, Flair, who had plugged Race's appearance heavily on local promos, told fans he was going to give Hennig a beating worthy of Race. After the match and DQ finish, Hennig and Race had words and Hennig professionally took some big bumps for Race, now 54, and the show ended with Flair and Race, the old rivals, in the ring together raising each others' hand to another huge standing ovation.

WWF has announced its second England PPV show for April 4 in Manchester, presumably with Michaels vs. Smith for the European title on top.

WCW's Thursday TV show may be called WCW Thursday Thunder, although that name is not yet a definite.

Sandman returned to ECW on 11/8 at the ECW Arena before about 1,100. Taz & Dreamer faced Sabu & Van Dam on top. Pit Bulls attacked Taz taking him out of there. Dreamer pinned Van Dam, but was destroyed by both after the match. They were about to "break" his injured heel when the lights went out and Sandman showed up drinking a beer when the lights went back on to make the save.

Snow got a dislocated shoulder and will be out six weeks, Buh Buh Ray Dudley got a broken nose but he won't miss any dates, Francine suffered a fractured pelvic bone and is expected back for the PPV and Bigelow needed 12 stitches for a cut.

As of press time, the coroners office in Minneapolis still claims the cause of death of Pillman is still pending.

Konnan will be out of action for two weeks due to swollen kidneys, a herniated disc in his back and tendinitis in his feet.

On the WCW Hotline, Mark Madden blamed a colleague, never mentioning Okerlund by now, for the reports of Pillman's death being a cocaine overdose. Okerlund has still not apologized for the report.

Nitro on 11/10 in Memphis drew a sellout of 8,091 paying a city all-time record $141,795. Eddie Guerrero won the TV title from Rey Misterio Jr in 5:58 with the frog splash in a very good match.

Jimmy Hart returned on the show managing Barbarian, but it may have been a favor since they were in his former home town of Memphis. Hart got a huge pop coming out in Memphis. Top matches were Hennig vs. Page (Hennig DQ'd for using the belt) and Flair vs. Luger (Flair DQ'd when Hennig attacked Luger, but then Flair attacked Hennig), both of which were good matches.

Dan Severn had a weird altercation with Dory Funk after a show on 11/8 in Gainesville, FL. Believe it or not, it was in no way a work and I can say that 100% even though I'm sure most won't believe it. Marti Funk threw a drink on Severn, who got upset, and Dory was having to defend his wife. They ended up in the ring with about 50-75 onlookers and didn't fight, but did wrestle each other with reports being that Severn was too quick and technical but they mainly tried to stretch each other before a furious Severn walked out of the ring and went to his hotel room. The local police hearing about the disturbance came to arrest people just as it was breaking up.

Raw on 11/10 in Ottawa drew 8,209 paying $142,598. Michinoku beat Devon Storm in an average match to advance in the cruiser tourney. Goldust did a heel interview and was power bombed by Vader. Mero and Johnson had one of the worst matches in the history of wrestling. They also did an angle with Mero and cult pro boxer Eric "Butterbean" Esch where Mero challenged him to a four round match.

Great Sasuke & Super Delfin won the Michinoku Pro tag tourney on 11/9 in Sendai beating Shoichi Funaki & Mens Teioh in the finals. Going into the final night of round-robin on 11/8, Teioh & Funaki had five points, Tiger Mask & Gran Hamada had five, Sasuke & Delfin had five, and Super Boy & Dick Togo had six. Teioh & Funaki beat Tiger Mask & Hamada to clinch one spot in the finals. Sasuke & Delfin then beat Super Boy & Togo to clinch the other spot.

Former UFC fighter Patrick Smith works for Kingdom on 11/15 in Hakodate against Masahito Kakihara, and 11/19 in Sapporo against Hiromitsu Kanehara.

Stevie Richards quit WCW. He had a falling out legit with Raven and felt without the association that he had no chance at being pushed. At the same time he wants to start a Video Arcade game shop in Philadelphia.

Besides Raw and Nitro, other weekend ratings were WCW Main Event at 1.4, Saturday Night at 2.2 and Pro at 1.6. WWF Live Wire did 1.4 and Superstars did a strong 2.1.

WCW business saw 11/4 in Bethlehem, PA draw 2,078 paying $39,948, Kansas City on 11/7 drew a sellout 2,865 paying $49,318, 11/8 in Springfield, MO drew a sellout 3,039 paying $58,321 and 11/9 in West Plains, MO drew 1,953 paying $37,446.

WWF ran Toronto and Montreal, plus 11/8 in Detroit drawing 7,286 paying $123,425.

Shinjiro Otani defends IWGP jr. title against Kendo Ka Shin on 12/8 in Osaka.

There is a match for New Tokyo Pro Wrestling on 1/18 at Korakuen Hall with Takashi Ishikawa vs. Badnews Allen with the loser vowing to retire.

Michinoku Pro and All Japan women are joining forces on some house shows on 11/17, 11/21 at Korakuen Hall and a major show on 11/23 in Nagoya. That show will have Yumiko Hotta defending WWWA title against Manami Toyota and Takako Inoue defending the All-Pacific title against Kumiko Maekawa.

Tommy Dreamer will be going to IWA in December.

Atsushi Onita canceled all plans for big shows in December that were to include WWF and ECW talent and won't be working with either group for anything in the future at this point. WWF is attempting to open up talent relations with All Japan. Onita wants to build the whole promotion around FMW vs. Zen, so the original NWO-like Funkmasters of Wrestling angle has been dropped and the only foreigner they are keeping is Gladiator, so it appears they won't be using Terry Funk or Head Hunters any longer.

Royce Gracie is expected to come to Japan on 11/14 to officially announce his return on the 1/18 Pride Two show in Yokohama.

Antonio Inoki is going to India about running a major New Japan stadium event there in March and another big event in China in May.