won 1996

They also introduced Super Nova as their new flunky and he was jumping around like Leif Cassidy. Raven told Richards to find him a whore as slutty as the women in Allentown. During the angle, Joey Styles told Richards that he's just as cool as the real American Males. The idea is to keep presenting Raven with slutty new valets and he keeps turning them down until they find the right one, which may turn out being Peaches, who is the real life wife of Sandman.
~~~~~

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HOMERADIO ARCHIVENEWSLETTER ARCHIVETHE BOARDNEWSUFC NEWSWWE NEWSJAPAN NEWSROH NEWSTNA NEWSMEXICO NEWSINDIE NEWS
MAY 27, 1996 WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: PRO WRESTLER VS. PRO WRESTLING IN UFC, DIESEL AND RAZOR RAMON LEAVE WWE AFTER MSG CURTAIN CALL, TONS MORE
BY OBSERVER STAFF | STAFF@WRESTLINGOBSERVER.COM | @WONF4W
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Wrestling Observer Newsletter
PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 May 27, 1996

UFC IX POLL RESULTS

Thumbs up 112 (75.2%)

Thumbs down 18 (12.1%)

In the middle 19 (12.8%)

BEST MATCH POLL

Don Frye vs. Amoury Bitetti 129

WORST MATCH POLL

Dan Severn vs. Ken Shamrock 96

WCW SLAMBOREE POLL RESULTS

Thumbs up 8 (06.3%)

Thumbs down 104 (81.9%)

In the middle 15 (11.8%)

BEST MATCH POLL

Konnan vs. Jushin Liger 98

The Giant vs. Sting 9

WORST MATCH POLL

Battle Royal 28

Hawk & Luger vs. Animal & Booker T 25

Slater & Eaton vs. Duggan & Wallstreet 16

Taylor & Regal vs. Duggan & Wallstreet 14

Ray & Bubba vs. Norton & Ice Train 10

Based on phone calls, letters and fax messages to the Observer as of Tuesday, 5/21. Statistical margin of error: +-100%

There was never a dull moment when the Ultimate Fighting Championships came to Detroit. At least until the main event.

There were last second negotiations in court to keep the show alive. There were last second negotiations to fill a hole in the card. There was the hardest fought and most brutal fight in the history of the UFC. And then there was the most important legitimate contest between two star pro wrestlers in the United States in perhaps 70 years. And it turned into the worst match in the history of UFC, and yet another defining moment as a rapidly changing sport changed once again.

When the dust cleared, Dan Severn emerged as the World superfight champion winning a split decision over Ken Shamrock after a 30:00 double overtime match which contained almost no body contact except for a six minute surge in the latter stages of regulation time. It was a fight neither could afford to lose because so much in their careers were riding on it, and both knew that the other could beat them if they made one mistake. So Severn kept dancing to his left, away from Shamrock's powerful right hand. Shamrock kept pivoting to follow him, a few glancing blows were thrown, and two of the great shooters of our time were waiting for the other to shoot. After 70 years of being legendary, modern day fans finally saw what the Strangler Lewis-Joe Stecher five hour match really looked like. Or what long-time wrestling fans will vaguely recall as the most publicized legitimate shoot (and yes, it was a legitimate match) involving a pro wrestler ever marketed in the United States, the 1976 Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki fiasco. And why there was never another of either.

The sold out crowd of 11,200 at Cobo Arena booed both Severn, who got a hometown hero response throughout the show whenever his face would appear on the video wall, and Shamrock, whose crowd reaction and hatred would have made the best pro wrestling heels in their heyday proud, after the 5:00 mark. However, the two stuck to their approach of waiting for the other to make his move. And both patiently waited to capitalize on the first mistake. Chants of "boring," "refund," "bullshit," "Let's go Red Wings," and more were heard throughout the match. Fans were throwing things. Shamrock, who wouldn't make a move, gave saying "C'mon" to Severn, inviting him and daring him to attack. Ref John McCarthy was screaming at both men to try something. And SEG officials at ringside had that look promoters get when seeing a show which up to that point had been very successful, look as if it was falling apart before their eyes. Even after the match ended and Severn was awarded the decision in dramatic fashion after a most undramatic of fights, the crowd largely booed. Not because they disagreed with the judges decision, but because the crowd felt it was a fight that both men deserved to lose.

Just moments earlier, Severn's protege, Don Frye, came out as the latest superstar of the UFC, destroying Amoury Bitetti, winner of the World Jiu-Jitsu championships this past February in the absolute (unlimited) weight division. UFC is largely a battle of styles, in that fighter A because of style can beat B, and B can beat C, but often because of style, C can then beat A. The mystique of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu superiority, spawned by the success of Royce and Rickson Gracie and later by cousins Renzo and Ralph in various no rules events around the world, was given a stiff beating from punches, knees, forearms and elbows. Frye showed the BJJ's systems achilles heel, as all fighting systems have. The combination of a wrestler with good enough balance to avoid being taken down by a BJJ practitioner, and a boxer with enough punching power and skill on his feet, and the intelligence to avoid being maneuvered into a bad position can beat what to this point appeared to be the most applicable martial arts fighting system in the world.

But after the most violent, dangerous and bloodiest show in UFC history, just hours after a judge mandated several rule changes that were supposed to make the event safer, the future is once again in question.

The biggest UFC event in history was nearly canceled at the last minute. What looked to be the biggest fight of the year was a total dud to all but the few people who are such martial arts aficionados that they saw the totally unentertaining match as a fascinating chess match. The only problem was that at least for the first 18 minutes, chess would be more entertaining.

With Canada and much of the Northeast blacked out from the PPV due to cable company decisions, promoters Semaphore Entertainment Group is taking the hit on both ends. Greater expenses because of the constant court cases to prevent stopping the live events. Less revenue because the largest percentage yet (16%) of the PPV universe refused to carry the show, particularly in Canada where the buy rates are twice as high as in the United States, due to the controversy that surrounds it and stemming from the EFC fiasco in Canada. Because Canada is so strong for UFC, that probably means a greater than 20% overall hit in total event revenue. There were irate phone calls to cable companies by disenfranchised UFC fans in several major cities in Canada, which got newspaper coverage in those cities about the local companies getting their hands tied when Viewers Choice of Canada wouldn't put the signal up.

And while there were no serious injuries, serious in the sense of being compared with sports like boxing or football, this show was hardly like Denver in that it appeared to be a series of wrestling matches with a few knees and elbows thrown in.

There was blood in every match. There was nothing even close to a submission hold on the show. Shamrock after the show admitted that in both UFC and Pancrase, as the skill level of blocking and experience of the competitors increase, it becomes harder to apply the armbreakers and kneebar submission finishers which were the in vogue maneuvers and made people like him, Royce Gracie and Oleg Taktarov so dangerous. The previous night, at the biggest Pancrase card of the year and another PPV taping, only two of the nine matches ended with submissions. And the new rules laid down in court that afternoon banning closed-fist punches and head-butts, were flagrantly violated in just about every match.

Actually two new stars came out of the first non-tournament in UFC history. Aside from Frye, the best credentialed all-around wrestler ever to enter the no rules arena made a shocking and unscheduled debut.

Mark Schultz, 33, a three-time NCAA champion, two-time world champion and 1984 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling at 181 pounds, decided at Noon the day of the show to accept the invitation to replace Dave Beneteau in a match against Gary Goodridge. Schultz, originally from Palo Alto, CA, who the younger brother of the recently murdered David Schultz, is a wrestling coach at Brigham Young University. He helped train Beneteau for this fight, helped train Tank Abbott for the Ultimate Ultimate, and had trained and had private competitions in the past with Rickson Gracie. According to legend, Schultz was always able to take Gracie down, and get on top, and able to keep position on top. However, Schultz could never make Gracie tap out, while Gracie, waiting patiently on the bottom for a mistake, was able to capitalize and eventually make Schultz tap.

SEG was hit with the Beneteau bombshell the day before the event. Beneteau had fractured his hand in training more than three weeks ago, but concealed the injury because either he was so tough he didn't care, or because he wanted to redeem himself from two few recent quick losses to Oleg Taktarov, or because he wanted the payoff, and probably a little of each. Beneteau, who lives in nearby Windsor, ONT, had already scheduled surgery for his hand for the morning after the fight figuring the damage he was going to do to himself. He even managed to conceal the injury in his first physical since the doctor had no reason to check his hand. But the rumor got out that day, and during a second physical, the doctor refused to allow him to go on, sending SEG officials scrambling for a replacement about 24 hours before show time. The lobby of the Westin in downtown Detroit was filled with fighters, as UFC events have become a convention of names known within the somewhat secretive and rumor-filled world of Vale Tudo competition. Schultz, who had been in and out of negotiations with SEG for several months with officials previously saying his asking price was way too high, indicated when Beneteau was waved off that he might want to give it a try. The sides agreed on a price and stipulations (basically, a promise that he'd be in the next tournament if he wanted to be) rather quickly, but Schultz was non-committal before going to sleep Thursday night. On Friday morning, SEG had talked with a few fighters and eventually decided on a protege of Shamrock over a protege of Severn (pro wrestler Geza Kalman Jr.) to take Beneteau's spot.

But that wasn't the only storyline being played the day before the show. A federal court of appeals in Cincinnati the day before the show refused to hear the Michigan state and Wayne County prosecutors attempt to get an injunction barring the event based on the obscure and never before enforced 1869 provision banning all prize fighting in Michigan, which has since been amended to allow only boxing and tough man competition. However, the judge sent the case back to state court where a final hearing was scheduled in front of Judge Arthur J. Lombard at 1 p.m. the day of the fight in a court house that was walking distance from the Cobo.

As officials readied themselves to go to court, Schultz phoned down and said he'd take the match and they put together contracts to sign immediately, and next thing you know, it's "All rise" time in a packed court house filled with television cameras from everyone from local TV and radio stations to a film crew working on a UFC documentary to CNN news.

Most of the negotiations between the Government prosecutors, Lombard and SEG lawyers along with testimony from UFC Dr. Richard Istrico, referee McCarthy and promoter Bob Meyrowitz were in judges chambers behind closed doors.

At 2:30 p.m., Lombard and the principals emerged, with Meyrowitz looking none too happy. Lombard, with cameras ablazing, gave a speech filled with pre-packaged one-liners and came forth with a decision worthy of Salomon, only it was Salomon Grundy, not King Salomon. After viewing a tape he picked up the previous night at Blockbuster, he said that part of UFC looked like boxing, parts like wrestling, and parts like martial arts. Since boxing is only allowed in Michigan through a series of state mandated regulatory practices (licensing fighters, getting a promoters' license, etc.) and that this event hadn't gone through those procedures, he didn't want to allow any boxing. However, he felt the 1869 law itself did not apply to this event since he didn't see UFC as prize fighting since he saw prize fighting as synonymous with boxing, something prosecutors violently disagreed with. So to make the event look more like wrestling and martial arts, he decreed to deny the government's injunction attempting to shut down the show, but that all closed-fist punches and head-butts would be banned. Meyrowitz was in a position where he either had to agree or have the show stopped, which would be a seven figure hit, and thus was in no position to hold his ground on principle. However, the end result of agreeing in court to amend the rules, and than having an event where those rules were regularly violated, could come back to hurt Meyrowitz when other communities attempt to stop the live shows from taking place. The prosecutors, in particular Michigan Assistant Attorney General Michael Lockman, weren't satisfied, wanting the judge to issue an injunction banning punches and head-butts, figuring either the fighters wouldn't listen or the rules wouldn't be enforced. The judge felt since he had the promoters' word those two moves would be banned, he didn't need to issue an injunction. Meyrowitz also said in court that he'd never run another show in Wayne County again despite the record advance, although didn't go so far as to agree not to do another show in Michigan. Istrico, in the courthouse after testifying to things like safety record and precautions taken in the event, in four different court outings over the past three weeks, muttered under his breath something about nobody ever paying attention once again.

After the hearing, when Lockman was asked how come this law had never been used to shut down other combat sports previously such as wrestling, judo or kick boxing events, said it was because the prosecutors simply didn't know these events had ever taking place, but noted that the law was used several years back in attempting to shut down tough man events. However even those events were allowed to go on when the state legislature gave tough man events an exemption from the law. It was noted in the hearing that the law doesn't apply to pro wrestling because it was testified in 1995 to the state legislature that pro wrestling was a sham in order to remove it from the auspices of the athletic commission. I'm not sure what that means about all the pro wrestling in Michigan before 1995.

Word of the decision quickly filtered through to the fighters. The general consensus was that they didn't believe the rules were going to be enforced and it was expected fighters would simply do what they'd trained themselves to do once the gate closed. The reaction by Ken and Bob Shamrock, having gotten the word while watching a newscast, was vehement. Most everyone else independently decided to violate the rules, even Severn, who grow up in a sports background where he always adhered to rules. Severn himself found his own personal contradictions of his own sportsmanship and what he wound up doing in the fight rather ironic. Shamrock, for whatever reason, decided he wouldn't throw a punch or a head-butt. If those were the rules laid out, he was going to win the match within the rules, although finally late in the fight he ended up closing his fists and threw two or three.

After the third fight of the show, the third fight with punches and head-butts and the third fight with blood, Detroit police chief Isaiah McKinnon stormed out of the Cobo.

"I've seen enough," he said as he left. "There appeared to be a clear violation of the rules. This is head-butting. There is punching. They're not going by the rules the judge set down. The punching and butting blatantly violate the agreement. My recommendation is that the prosecutor's office confiscate a tape of this and look at it."

No announcement of the supposed rule change was made either to the audience live, some of whom had seen or heard the TV and radio news reports but many of whom hadn't. It was never acknowledged on television about any rule change, and fans at home couldn't figure out whenever punches were thrown why ref McCarthy continually screamed at the combatants to open their fists. At one point, Don Wilson acknowledged McCarthy's remarks saying that he was saying it to protect the fighters from breaking their hands but the court case and agreement was never brought up. UFC does deserve credit as compared with recent pro wrestling shows for immediately in both the pre-game show and PPV show acknowledging the substitutions on the show, something that needed to be done since the pre-taped television ads on all the cable stations listed Marco Ruas in the semi-main event.

A famous boxer once said after winning a boring fight that when people pick up the newspaper the next day and read about the fight, they don't remember if it was good or bad, they only remember who won and who lost.

Severn, who weighed 247--nine pounds more than he weighed at the Ultimate Ultimate and five pounds heavier than for the first Shamrock match due to heavy consumption of Met-Rx and heavier lifting, came out of the fight unmarked and unhurt. He deserves praise for strategy, that is, finding a way within the framework of the rules that were laid out to win a match that all but his best friends thought he was going to lose. But he didn't pick up a lot of fans in doing so, but noted that the fans who were complaining weren't locked in looking eye-to-eye with Shamrock. He recognizes at two weeks before his 38th birthday, that his long-term future is really in the world of Japanese pro wrestling and not UFC. Because of Shamrock's visibility and stature in Japan and the fact Japanese fans and press were seeing it as a battle between the toughest guy in New Japan, the most successful and biggest wrestling company in Japan, and the toughest guy in Pancrase, whose audience believes it is the only true competitive pro wrestling, combined with future UFC paydays from being superfight champion as opposed to someone having lost two title shots, this was the most important competitive match of his life. Five years from now, and for that matter, five weeks from now, when he's in the ring in Japan, people will have long forgotten how boring his most important victory was, only that he was the first Ultimate Ultimate champion and had avenged his loss to Shamrock.

Shamrock, who was announced at 215 but appeared to be slightly lighter, as he was as cut up as usual, but not as large as in his three previous superfights, was despondent over how everything turned out since the loss was a major blow to his reputation both here and abroad. He said it was a fair decision. There were those who felt that had it been a tournament fight, Severn should have gotten the decision, but in a championship match, Severn didn't initiate enough offense to get the decision. The vast majority calling here believed the right person got the decision. He said the rule change by the judge which changed his strategy and the broken nose he suffered a few weeks ago in training which was largely kept secretive were not factors at all in the final outcome. He was particularly down about his own performance because he had Severn exactly where he wanted him--in the mount, and was unable to finish him or even do any serious damage. The only complaint he made after the match is with the rules allowing gloves on competitors, saying that the stitching in Severn's glove when Severn was mauling him, opened him up. It was only moments after Severn reversed and got on top before Shamrock's had several open cuts and had a face covered in blood and at one point the doctor had to examine him to determine if he could continue. Although Shamrock looked in bad shape at the time, and after the fight as well with the puffy eyes and fresh cuts, the wounds were all superficial. Because UFC tries to bill itself as being as close to a street fight as possible, he pointed out that in a street fight, you wear shoes and can kick with them, which is banned in UFC, but in a street fight, you don't go into it wearing gloves. The most bitter pill to swallow was an apparent self realization about his own hunger and being spread too thin, between training for UFC and Pancrase, which are similar but different entities and require different training, training and booking fighters, running his dojo, getting into acting and raising a family that is soon to add a fourth child. He said he didn't have the training drive he's had in the past and doesn't have the hunger that he sees in his own younger fighters. He talked about first going on a vacation, then undergoing surgery to straighten his nose and fix his knee, and then being around while his wife has a baby in July. His next few matches will be with Pancrase, but he said he's made the decision to retire as a fighter with Pancrase in December when his contract expires.

Shamrock said he understands the fans reaction to the fight, and that as fans they have the right to vocally show their displeasure.

Severn noted that because he and Shamrock are both pro wrestlers, that he actually felt a weird bond between the two of them and at one point while he was on the bottom cracked a joke about what a tough way this is to earn a buck. What led to the match turning out as it did was understandable. Two men, both with large families, having made big money for the first time in their lives and with a hell of a lot to lose with a devastating loss, totally respecting the fact that the other could put them away with one error. Severn studied the film of his prior match with Shamrock for the past several weeks after never watching a copy of the tape up until that time, and noticed Shamrock is mainly a counter fighter, so he didn't give him anything to counter. Severn noted that after his match with Shamrock last year that it was two weeks before he could even swallow food without a lot of pain from the guillotine choke finisher. Shamrock said that he couldn't put himself in a position where he could get hurt.

Unfortunately, there is pure sport and there is entertainment. As soon as the word professional becomes a part of any sport, it inherently becomes business and can no longer be pure sport, no matter how much its most hardcore fan base wishes that were the case. While some martial experts categorized the match as a strategic masterpiece by Severn, 99.9 percent of the audience saw it as a terrible match. The only reason the show was saved was because of Frye, Bitetti and Schultz. A main event with this much hype in a fledgling sport can't turn out like this again. It was a few years before pro wrestling in Japan recovered from Ali-Inoki after it was hyped as the biggest sports event in the country and turned out so miserably. Ironically now, 20 years later, Inoki considers it his greatest fight because it was one of only a handful that were real, and it was against a dangerous adversary and he was limited in what he could do to survive by the rules even though it was in many ways similar to this match, minus the last six minutes of regulation time. Damage from this fight will probably be minimal if at all due to the strength of the undercard, but if there is another main event that is similar after this match and Ruas-Taktarov, the damage will be serious.

The answer. Similar to amateur wrestling when it comes to a stalling rule and how rules were changed decades ago in basketball to eliminate stalling with a shot clock. My suggestion is to implement a card system, similar to soccer and amateur wrestling, and give the ref power to issue stalling warnings if the men are on their feet and avoiding contact. After two warnings, which would be yellow cards, if a competitor continues to stall he would get a red card which would end the match and cause a loss. There may be an avoidance of action for a few minutes during a match, but at least it won't ever last 16 minutes again.

A. Steve Nelmark (1-0) beat Tai Bowden (0-1) in 8:20 when the ref stopped the match. Nelmark got on top and Bowden bled within the first minute. Nelmark dominated with punches and elbows before the blood was so bad the match was stopped.

1. Cal Worsham (1-1) beat Zane Frazier (0-2) in 3:17 when Worsham scored a take-down and delivered several head-butts and punches from the top before Frazier tapped out. Frazier was also cut. Ironically, Worsham, who had the advantage the entire match, came out as the most seriously hurt person on the show and perhaps the worst in UFC history as he had to spend the night in a hospital. He had polyps in his lung, probably congenital, which burst after taking a short punch that actually had no effect on the fight, but his lungs filled with fluid. While it wasn't life threatening, they needed to insert a tube in his stomach to drain the fluid out of his lungs. He was okay by the next morning.

2. Rafael Carino (1-0) beat Matt Andersen (0-1). Carino is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter who recently won a national brown belt tournament but had never done a Vale Tudo/UFC style match before. Andersen was from the same Omaha dojo that produced Steve Jennum. Carino was billed at 6-8, 250 but was more like 6-4, 235 as compared to Andersen who appeared to be 6-1, 210. Carino got on top, threw a lot of punches, Andersen bled a little, and finally the ref stopped the fight at 5:33.

3. Schultz (1-0) beat Gary Goodridge (2-2). Schultz, at 5-10, 203 with a shaved head and muscular build looked a lot like the wrestler Konnan. Goodridge is a powerhouse who eschewed all weight training to concentrate on his endurance training. Schultz scored several take-downs and mauled Goodridge from the top, bloodying him up. After the 12:00 regulation time ended, Goodridge's cut was checked by the doctor and the ref and they refused to allow him to go into overtime. Schultz praised his late brother after the match.

4. Mark Hall (3-1) beat Koji Kitao (0-1) in a fluke. Kitao's corner man was pro wrestler Koki Kitahara from the WAR promotion. Hall got a punch which appeared to break Kitao's nose because it was like his nose exploded with blood everywhere. Kitao slammed Hall down and had him in a bad position when the ref saw all the blood and pulled Kitao off. Kitao didn't seem like he wanted to continue and when the doctor checked the nose, he thought it was broken (as it turns out, reports we get were that it actually wasn't broken) and stopped the fight in :47. Hall got a huge ovation from the pro wrestling type crowd that hated foreigners and liked the idea of a 189 pound American beating a 390 pound Japanese giant. Hall asked his girlfriend to marry him on TV after the match. In next day Japanese newspaper reports, they said Hall should have been disqualified since closed fist punches were against the rules and Kitao's nose was broken by an illegal punch.

5. Frye (4-0) beat Bitetti (0-1) in a total war. Frye took the game Bitetti apart with punches, knees and elbows both standing and on the ground. Bitetti was covered in blood but refused to quit. Bitetti was the real deal and this result was a major upset. After the show, even the Brazilians were praising what an awesome fighter Frye was. The match probably lasted too long because as brutal as it looked on television, is was far more brutal live. The ref didn't want to stop it because Bitetti never quit fighting and has a tremendous reputation. Finally at 9:30, the ref stopped the match.

6. Severn (9-2) beat Shamrock (5-2-2) by a 2-1 decision after the two finished 24:00 of regulation and two 3:00 overtimes. The first 16:00 was largely dancing although there were a few blows thrown and Shamrock was cut by the 6:00 mark. Severn finally shot for Severn's ankle at 16:00 but Shamrock quickly got out of trouble. He tried for the ankle again at 17:30 and this time it wound up in a scramble with Shamrock on top in the mounted position. Shamrock tried to get rough on top, with a few elbows and a lot of body shots and rubbing the forearm bone against the cheek bone. Severn exposed his back and Shamrock went for the choke, but Shamrock didn't get the move and Severn managed a reversal landing on top. Severn threw punches and elbows at Shamrock and bloodied him up, opening up cuts on both the top and bottom of the left eye and the bottom of the right. Shamrock escaped just as regulation time ended. There was no action to speak of in either overtime. In total, Shamrock controlled about 4:30 and Severn controlled about 1:15, but in his short period in control, Severn did five times the damage which is why he was awarded the decision.

As coincidence would have it, Royce Gracie was also in Denver over the weekend doing a seminar. Gracie's name was kept alive on the show, even though it's doubtful he'll ever take a fight against a top all-around fighter again. There were plenty of signs and banners wanting Gracie to get a shot at Mike Tyson or for him to return to UFC. At the end of the show, Severn's team had a banner of its own, challenging Gracie to a match at UFC X, with a drawing of a chicken asking if Gracie was chicken.

The next day at his seminar in Detroit, Gracie, who didn't attend the UFC nor stay in the same hotel where the fighters from all over the world had congregated, was downing both Severn and Shamrock big-time.

Among the pro wrestling types at the show were Kalman, Kitahara, Wally Yamaguchi (manager Mr. Toyota), and Pancrase wrestlers Frank Shamrock, Jason DiLucia, Masakatsu Funaki (who was Shamrock's second for the match with Severn), Guy Mezger and Vernon White. I expect that Frye, who is a big fan of Ric Flair's, will eventually become a pro wrestler in Japan and perhaps a tag team partner of Severn's.


The final appearances of Diesel and Razor Ramon in the WWF came in a strange curtain call finale of the clique before the first indoor non-PPV house in WWF history to top $300,000 on 5/19 in Madison Square Garden.

The Garden's second straight sellout, the first time that's happened in 11 years, of 18,800 fans (16,564 paying $319,411) saw what many were saying was the best MSG house show since Wrestlemania X.

The big news on the show was supposed to be the tag team title change where the Godwinn Brothers (Mark Canterberry & Dennis Knight) won the belts from the Bodydonnas (Chris Candito & Tom Prichard). That happened, with Phinneus (Knight) recovering from being kissed by Sunny to score the pin on Zip with the slop drop. While that happened, and results in the Godwinns defending the tag team titles in the Free-for-all match on the 5/26 PPV show from Florence, SC against the Smoking Gunns, it was hardly the main topic of conversation regarding the show. Eventually the belts are supposed to wind up going to Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith.

Both Diesel and Ramon, in their final appearances before starting with WCW in mid-June, were the recipient of chants of "You sold out" and "Please don't go" by a decent percentage of the crowd that seemed to know it was their final show. Ramon was booed in his match with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (who replaced Goldust who missed another weekend because his knee hasn't recovered well enough for him to work), and heavily booed with a loud "You sold out" chant after he did the job. After the match, he grabbed the house mic and before he could get more than a few words out, panicked WWF officials, since this wasn't part of the show, cut off the power. As it was, all Ramon ended up saying was something to the effect of telling people to "Say Goodbye to the Bad Guy."

However, it wasn't over for the Bad Guy just yet. After a very strong main event cage match where Shawn Michaels beat Diesel to keep the WWF title, it was time for the curtain call. Michaels had won the match by walking out the cage after laying Diesel out with the superkick. After the match, Michaels kissed Diesel, who revived like the frog kissed by the princess, and the two hugged in the ring. Diesel got a lot more cheers during the match than most would have figured, although Michaels was still the most popular wrestler on the show. Ramon and fellow clique member Helmsley then came into the ring and the four got on all four posts and gave clique signals to the fans, some of whom were teary-eyed and saying it was one of the best moments of wrestling at MSG in years. Supposedly this final display wasn't approved by WWF officials, but it got over great with the audience so little will probably result from it. However, there were other wrestlers who were very unhappy at what they considered a kayfabe violation, particularly since Helmsley was in the ring hugging Ramon and Diesel had just finished a match with Michaels and magically arose from a finishing move by being kissed. The other clique member, 1-2-3 Kid, wasn't at the show as his future with the company is somewhat in question after he showed up at the Superstars taping on 4/30 in no condition to perform, and won't be back until June at the earliest.

The MSG show climaxed a four-show tour which drew $664,192. While there have been numerous larger crowds, in fact most crowds at MSG during the 80s were larger, this was the largest non-PPV gate ever, breaking the $299,526 record set at the previous show in March. The previous afternoon, Philadelphia drew its largest non-PPV house since 1992 when 8,308 fans paid $158,402. Hershey that night drew 4,783 and $80,410, its best non-PPV house since 1991. The tour opened on 5/17 in Baltimore at the Arena drawing 6,559 fans and $106,329, its best non-PPV gate since 1989. Perhaps the most impressive stat of all is that they did $251,000 additionally in merchandise at the four shows including $111,000 in Madison Square Garden. They averaged close to $7 per head in merchandise over the weekend, which is close to double what you would expect, which shows that the characters on top that they are merchandising are very over.

With the exception of Hershey, all the shows were headlined by Michaels beating Diesel in cage matches. Davey Boy Smith attempted to interfere in all the matches, but they were teases of title change finishes. Diesel refused to work Hershey after he was originally booked in the main event, saying he wasn't going to do a double-shot, so Smith worked that show against Michaels.


Juice was flowing in Detroit at UFC, and another kind of juice and I don't mean pineapple juice, appears to be flowing at WCW.

Lethal Lottery has never been a strong concept in the past. If it ever could be a strong concept, this was the year, with the gimmick of pitting Road Warrior vs. Road Warrior, Steiner vs. Steiner and pairing Ric Flair & Randy Savage as a team. But whatever was good about the Slamboree PPV was, with the exception of Flair and Savage, were the two non-Lottery title matches.

Another WCW filled with negative feedback took place on 5/19 at the Baton Rouge, LA Riverside Centroplex, before 7,791 fans (6,308 paying $104,760). It was announced several times on both the PPV show and on Nitro the following evening as a sellout. It was nearly full, but a sellout it wasn't. Nor a good show. I'm apparently becoming too charitable as I gave it a slight thumbs down because I enjoyed Flair's performance and both the U.S. and WCW title matches, and in other spots the workrate was better than expected. Overall the Lottery was a dud, with Diamond Dallas Page winning the Battle Royal, but not getting the promised title shot as it was announced on TV the next day that his foot hit the floor earlier in the Battle Royal. How Lex Luger would get the title shot instead of The Barbarian was not explained, nor need it be since this is WCW and it's time to get used to the idea that much of the fun was seeing how they can't keep anything logical or keep storylines straight.

A. American Males (Mark Bagwell & Scott Antol) beat Shark (John Tenta) & Maxx (formerly Max Muscle, although announcer Eric Bischoff wasn't told that he's been given a new name with his new look, unfortunately same old working ability, so he continued to call him his old name) in 2:37 when Maxx knocked Shark down by accident and Riggs pinned him. After the match, Shark turned on Maxx and then went after Jimmy Hart. The Giant came down and choke slammed Shark. DUD

1. Road Warrior Animal (Joe Laurinaitis) & Booker T (Booker Huffman) went to a double count out with Road Warrior Hawk (Mike Hegstrand) & Lex Luger (Larry Pfohl) in 6:54 to eliminate all four from Battle Bowl. Hawk suffered a broken foot in Japan at the 4/29 Tokyo Dome and came to Baton Rouge with an orthopedic shoe and couldn't work. He never tagged in which meant Luger worked the entire match. It was real bad. The only good stuff was a break dance and kick by T. Finally Lex and Hawk broke up, and Animal and T broke up, and the Road Warriors brawled together against their foes and were all counted out. 1/4*

2. Public Enemy (Ted Petty & Mike Durham) beat Chris Benoit & Kevin Sullivan in 4:44. At one point Benoit saved Sullivan. Later when it came time for Sullivan to save Benoit, he just walked away, pretending to have hurt his knee and leaving Benoit to get the Public Enemy sandwich through the table and he was pinned by Rocco. A little sloppy, but overall not bad. *3/4

3. Rick Steiner (Robert Rechsteiner) & Booty Man (Ed Leslie) beat Craig Pittman & Scott Steiner (Scott Rechsteiner) in 8:21 when Rick pinned Pittman with a german suplex. At least Rick and Scott worked against each other for a few minutes getting lots of heat and trading big suplexes. The fans booed when Booty tagged in. **1/4

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ECW
The debut show in Allentown, PA on 5/18 drew an estimated 1,200 fans which could be the largest crowd outside of New York or Philadelphia in the history of the promotion. There were problems with the building which ordered no brawling outside the ring, no chair or guard rail shots and no going over the barricades. At one point after a chair shot after the Pit Bulls vs. Bruise Brothers match which was the third match on the show, they wanted to shut the show down. The crowd was really into the show early but by the end of the show the crowd reaction was disappointing and a lot of people left before the main event and apparently were unhappy about the triangle match which had no crowd heat. Taz beat Too Cold Scorpio in a matter of seconds with the choke after Shane Douglas distracted Scorpio. Taz said he waited one year to finally get back at Scorpio. Sabu beat Mikey Whipwreck in the best match on the show which got over really strong. They did a TV angle where Raven came out with Stevie Richards, who this week said his name was Stevie Alexander Bagwell and his tag partner Blue Meanie Riggs wearing vets, shades and jumping around like fruitcakes singing the American Males theme song. They also introduced Super Nova as their new flunky and he was jumping around like Leif Cassidy. Raven told Richards to find him a whore as slutty as the women in Allentown. During the angle, Joey Styles told Richards that he's just as cool as the real American Males. The idea is to keep presenting Raven with slutty new valets and he keeps turning them down until they find the right one, which may turn out being Peaches, who is the real life wife of Sandman. They had a three-way dance for the TV title with Douglas, Sandman and Tommy Dreamer. However, Sandman really couldn't work because he legit blew out his knee last week at the ECW Arena show. He came to the ring on crutches and tried to work anyway but Douglas put him in an Indian deathlock. Missy Hyatt tried to throw in the towel but Sandman wouldn't let her. Finally Scorpio came out and superkicked Douglas, Dreamer and accidentally kicked Sandman as well. Scorpio took Sandman's place in the match. Dreamer was eliminated first and finally Douglas pinned Scorpio to keep the title. Main event was the first tag title match with Eliminators vs. Gangstas, which is going to be the main event feud for a while. New Jack and Saturn did wind up brawling in the crowd but it was described as a disappointing match, with New Jack legitimately knocking himself out by missing a leap off the top rope with a chair and having the chair hit his own head when Saturn moved. They actually had to do some impromptu stuff until New Jack got his bearings back because he was limp and they couldn't get him up to do the total elimination. New Jack's head was busted open hardway when he got cold-cocked by the chair.