notes WCW 1995 december

Tom Robinson does a wrestling segment on WPWA, a small station in the Philadelphia area on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on pro wrestling.

Rich Turcsany of 203-375-0488 is looking for wrestling talent for interviews on his cable access show.


WCW
Monday Nitro from the Omni in Atlanta on 1/1 (6,000 fans/3,619 paying $42,840) was probably more noteworthy for what was said than what was done. Randy Savage pinned Arn Anderson in 7:57 after a ref bump, Anderson pulled out Knux, Savage beat him to the punch and got them and KO'd him with them and then put the Knux back in Anderson's trunks. Not good (*1/4). Steve Regal pinned Chris Benoit in 5:42 when Benoit missed a plancha and Regal rolled him into the ring for the pin. This was a totally different style match than ever seen before in the States combining European style with UFC style (takedowns and head-butts straight down) street fighting tactics. Really stiff but too short and no build for the finish (**3/4). Brian Pillman, Anderson and Benoit did an interview with Pillman yelling at both of them about losing their matches. Pillman only said one thing to nearly cost him his job in this interview when talking about how well Benoit performs with naked women in the limo. At this point Kevin Sullivan and Zodiac came out but the Giant pulled them away. Anderson then told Pillman that their job is to protect Flair and not to be starting wars with people they don't need to like Orndorff and the Dungeon of Doom. Lex Luger & Sting beat Super Assassins (Warlord & Barbarian) in 5:48 when Luger racked Barbarian while Sting scorpioned Warlord. This was actually the second best match of the TV show which is scary (*1/2). During the match Craig Pittman (whose legit great amateur credentials have now been exaggerated to five-time world champion) asked Steve McMichael to manage him and was turned down. At this rate the next guy he'll be asking is Chris Cruise (who, by the way, wore a diaper on television on one of the cable shows that aired this past weekend). Hulk Hogan beat Ric Flair via DQ in a title match in 7:54. It was all Flair could do is carry Hogan to the level of match he used to have with JYD. Jimmy Hart came out midway so Flair could get the same advantage spot (Hogan goes after manager, attacked from behind) he's done for the last 15 years. Hogan made the superman comeback and hit the legdrop when Anderson ran in and hit Hogan with Knux. Hogan didn't even go down and pop up, he just turned around and beat up Anderson, Pillman and Benoit, got the Knux and had all four Horseman begging off. The Giant then did a run-in with a stool but Savage got the stool away from him and Hogan beat him up as well. The Horseman scattered and Giant wanted to go back but Zodiac (apparently starting his long-anticipated and highly-awaited face turn) stopped him muttering that Hogan was his friend. Didn't they do that angle already last year? And didn't they forget it a few weeks later? Then Hogan & Savage did their closing interview challenging Flair & Anderson for 1/8. Hogan re-arranged all the planned booking at the last minute again as the original plans were for Flair vs. Sting and Luger vs. Savage on 1/8 and to do disputed finishes to lead to rematches the next week in both instances. Anderson & Pillman were supposed to face Sullivan & Hugh Morris in another angle. It appeared on television to be a mixed crowd reaction between Hogan and Flair with both getting cheered but more boos at Hogan, but told live it was decidedly pro-Hogan. It sounded like they booed like crazy during the Hogan interview and superman comeback, though.

On none of the weekend shows did they acknowledge anything about the Kensuke Sasaki vs. One Man Gang situation nor was the U.S. title ever mentioned.

The comments by Eric Bischoff as he watched Raw were probably more noteworthy. Early in the show Bischoff gave away that the Smoking Gunns won the Raw Bowl and that it wasn't any good and then called it the Toilet Bowl and McMichael started going on about it being the Kitty Kat League. After a sign was aired on Raw that said WWF was where the bigger boys play, he responded that WCW was where the biggest boys play. WWF did a skit on Raw where they had guys dressed up like Ted Turner, Bill Shaw, Harvey Schiller in "Billionaire Ted's Wrassling Warroom with a very old skinny guy dressed to be Hogan and a guy dressed to be Savage complaining how they need more action in their matches and showed clips of Ramon, Michaels, Diesel, etc. and showed Hogan and Savage's face cringing when they showed them doing their finishers. The Hogan character said he was too old and his feet don't leave the ground and that he was too old to be doing new moves (earlier in the show during one of the bumpers they showed the Hogan character asleep) and when Ted asked them what they could do to improve, the Hogan character started cupping his ear and doing lame poses and WWF started 1996 with its new slogan, "The New Generation, Still on top of the hill, not over the hill." Most who called here thought the skit was hilarious. Even those in WCW. The one thing that should comfort everyone that doesn't like all the name calling (as if this is something unique in wrestling and you don't see it in every phone company commercial) is they should realize that if Hogan or Savage were to call Vince tomorrow, they'd be on top there the next day (and visa versa with top WWF talent), and that some day if WWF survives, Hogan and Savage will be back there and they'll all be best friends again. Hogan and Savage prove that. Bischoff then came back during a promo for the movie that followed Nitro which was set in the land of myth and fantasy and he said that must be Stamford, CT, and then also said that the numbers talk and everything else walks. Supposedly WCW will do something on 1/8 to respond to the WWF skit.

TV ratings for the weekend of 12/23 saw Saturday Night do a 2.7, its best mark in nearly one year, but Sunday Main Event did a 1.4 and Nitro unopposed by Raw did a 2.5 (Savage vs. Flair for the title), which is roughly the same as it's been doing with competition, although Christmas night ratings are traditionally weak.

Bash at the Beach in July has been moved tentatively from Huntington Beach to Lake Tahoe and will instead be called Quake at the Lake.

Pillman guest hosted a talk show on WLW, a powerful 50,000 watt station out of Cincinnati doing his heel character. Almost everyone who called wanted to kill Hogan.

During the week, Rick Steamboat (or more importantly, Rick Steamboat's lawyer) got wind of last week's Gene Okerlund message (and for the record, Okerlund never used the word rumored when talking about WCW honoring Steamboat at the 1/1 Omni show). On this week's Okerlund message, he was forced by lawyers to say that Steamboat wasn't going to be honored at the Omni and that Steamboat was in no way associated with WCW, but didn't go so far as to admit that he made it up. Okerlund also said on the hotline that despite what you read, nobody on the hotline is censored when it is well known the company regularly censors Mark Madden. Madden came within a hair's breath of being fired because he brought up the crowd reaction to Hogan in Charlotte, but was saved by the lawyers because he had done his segment early for approval of the booking committee and nobody had bothered to listen, so it was felt if they fired him for something he said when nobody listened ahead of time and everything he says is subject to censoring, that it wouldn't hold up in court.

TBS Saturday Night did a year in review, which just brought back how terrible the product really was for the first nine months of the year. The attention to detail still hasn't improved as they aired skits with Sonny Onno, this time as Kensuke Ishikawa, the Japanese representative of WCW in the re-instating Flair skits.

Add Konnan vs. Psicosis to the 1/23 Clash in Las Vegas.

As of press time it appeared Public Enemy will use that name in WCW and start off doing a program with Nasty Boys.

Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero are all under WCW contract through the end of August.

Supposedly there was actually discussion of having Guerrero upset Flair and win the title similar to how Flair made Steamboat in the late 70s in the Carolinas.

Tentative plan for the 2/11 PPV in St. Pete is Flair defending against Savage and Hogan vs. Giant in a double main.

For the week ending 12/17, WWF television had more viewers than WCW. WWF, on 154 stations, did a 5.9 aggregate rating adding up all syndication and cable, while WCW, on 175 stations, did a 5.6.