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  1.  
  2. 2000: Nov
  3. Dec
  4.  
  5.  
  6. 2001: Jan
  7.  
  8. Feb
  9.  
  10. Mar
  11.  
  12. Apr
  13.  
  14. May
  15.  
  16. Jun
  17.  
  18. Jul
  19.  
  20. 11/30/2000 5:06:00 PM
  21. Afternoon update; McMahon awarded; WCW notes; Juvi sighting
  22.  
  23. 11/30/2000 2:57:00 PM
  24. Major New Japan press conference tomorrow
  25.  
  26. 11/30/2000 2:53:00 PM
  27. Legend going to WWF England show Saturday
  28.  
  29. 11/30/2000 12:11:00 PM
  30. NJ tag tourney results
  31.  
  32. 11/30/2000 11:59:00 AM
  33. Morning update; Beyond the Mat; This Day in History
  34.  
  35. 11/29/2000 8:55:00 PM
  36. New WWF PPV line-up for Saturday in England
  37.  
  38. 11/29/2000 5:27:00 PM
  39. WCW negotiations update; Juvi debuts in AAA
  40.  
  41. 11/29/2000 1:56:00 PM
  42. NJ tournament final bracketing for tonight
  43.  
  44. 11/29/2000 12:55:00 PM
  45. Bret Hart, McDevitt square off in Post; second morning update
  46.  
  47. 11/29/2000 12:15:00 PM
  48. Bischoff's deal to buy WCW may be imminent ; weekend ratings
  49.  
  50. 11/29/2000 3:20:00 AM
  51. Biggest draws this season, this year and in history
  52.  
  53. 11/29/2000 1:49:00 AM
  54. WWF Smackdown/Heat tapings 11-28 Minneapolis
  55.  
  56. 11/28/2000 9:11:00 PM
  57. WCW, ECW PPV updates; Vampiro on Observer Live
  58.  
  59. 11/28/2000 2:27:00 PM
  60. Ratings non-update
  61.  
  62. 11/28/2000 1:35:00 PM
  63. Tuesday a.m. update; NJ tourney; Today in history
  64.  
  65. 11/28/2000 4:47:00 AM
  66. More on Starrcade, Armageddon and Thunder highlights
  67.  
  68. 11/27/2000 11:43:00 PM
  69. Hall update; ECW update; Japan tag tournies; Starrcade show
  70.  
  71. 11/27/2000 1:17:00 PM
  72. Monday morning update
  73.  
  74. 11/27/2000 1:27:00 AM
  75. Post-Mayhem WCW update
  76.  
  77. 11/26/2000 11:13:00 PM
  78. Steiner wins WCW title; Mayhem flash report
  79.  
  80. 11/26/2000 5:48:00 PM
  81. Afternoon update; Miami Herald story; New Japan TV
  82.  
  83. 11/26/2000 1:38:00 PM
  84. Sunday update; Puerto Rico vs. ECW title; and plenty of history
  85.  
  86. 11/26/2000 4:58:00 AM
  87. WWF in Chicago; WCW update
  88.  
  89. 11/25/2000 1:55:00 PM
  90. Saturday first update; ECW TV; Karelin, Psicosis; double-crosses and Hart vs Michaels
  91.  
  92. 11/25/2000 12:20:00 AM
  93. Latest WWF news and comments
  94.  
  95. 11/24/2000 7:36:00 PM
  96. We're in the game; Brody Cup; WCW injuries; ECW news
  97.  
  98. 11/24/2000 7:07:00 PM
  99. Website Notes
  100.  
  101. 11/24/2000 4:12:00 PM
  102. Storm injures his ribs
  103.  
  104. 11/22/2000 8:52:00 PM
  105. Thunder, Smackdown notes; This coming week's Hardcore TV; Japanese tournaments; TV ratings
  106.  
  107. 11/21/2000 8:56:00 PM
  108. WWF has big financial quarter; WCW injury report update
  109.  
  110. 11/20/2000 8:57:00 PM
  111. Weekend preview; Strange WCW results in Germany
  112.  
  113.  
  114.  
  115.  
  116. ~~~
  117.  
  118. ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY
  119.  
  120. 1956 - After an absence of one year, pro wrestling returned to Madison Square Garden with a new promoter, Vince McMahon Sr. McMahon, who had been promoting in Washington, DC, got a Thursday night TV show and debuted midgets and outside the ring brawling to MSG. In the first main event, Argentina Rocca pinned Dick the Bruiser in 17:36. The show drew 10,400 fans paying $30,300. It wasn't until McMahon's second show, in February of 1957 that he was considered a success as the next year he started a streak of three straight packed house, headlined by Rocca. In 1955, MSG crowds ranged from 6,700 to 10,200 bottoming out for a Lou Thesz vs. Pat O'Connor scientific match for a group headed by Al Haft of Columbus, OH and Eddie Quinn of Montreal. The McMahon family has ruled pro wrestling promotion in MSG ever since this day.
  121.  
  122. 1960 - The Fabulous Kangaroos, Al Costello & Roy Heffernan, captured the WWWF United States tag team titles for a third and final time at the TV tapings in Washington, DC beating Johnny Valentine & Chief Big Heart. Valentine & Buddy Rogers were the champs but Rogers quit the team
  123.  
  124. 1971 - The famous Masked Assassins (Tom Renesto & Jody Hamilton) won the annual Thanksgiving night tag team tournament in Atlanta beating Bob Armstrong & Bill Dromo in the finals.
  125.  
  126. 1976 - Jack Brisco defeated Bob Backlund at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis to win the Missouri State title
  127.  
  128. 1987 - In one of the most important nights in pro wrestling history, WWF and NWA went head-to-head on PPV and this night basically killed Jim Crockett Promotions. What happened in the ring was secondary to the politics of the time. WWF, coming off Wrestlemania III, were the darlings of the PPV world. Crockett, the No. 2 promotion in the country, announced November 26, 1987 for his debut on PPV, Starrcade '87 on its traditional Thanksgiving night. Some months later, the WWF announced the debut of a Thanksgiving night tradition, the Survivor Series. The cable companies were ecstatic when word came that Crockett was willing to move his show to the afternoon to avoid a head-to-head, thinking they could clean up by having two lucrative shows, one after the other, and get wrestling fans in front of their sets all day. However, the WWF put a monkey wrench in the plans, stating that any cable company that airs Crockett's show, would not be able to air the WWF show. Since WWF at this point was a proven success and Crockett wasn't, all but five companies pulled away, mostly in Crockett's home territory where he was established and actually the company in San Jose also went with Crockett stating it had made the commitment to him and didn't want to be bullied by the WWF. Crockett had lost the war before he ever could fire a bullet, and because he banked so much of his company on huge success on PPV, he couldn't afford to pay the big contracts he had signed with his wrestlers and before the company went under, he sold the company one year later to a guy named Ted Turner, who wanted to maintain the strong TV ratings Crockett's Saturday and Sunday shows did on TBS. That's the real story of Turner owning WCW, and not the fantasy story that others in their own self-interest liked to claim as to why wrestling turned out like it did. The Survivor Series was a huge success, drawing a 7.0 buy rate and a sellout 21,300 fans to the Richfield, OH Coliseum for a main event of Andre the Giant & One Man Gang & King Kong Bundy & Butch Reed & Rick Rude over Hulk Hogan & Paul Orndorff & Don Muraco & Ken Patera & Bam Bam Bigelow in 22:00. Hogan was counted out late in the match, which came down to Bigelow vs. Andre, with Andre scoring a pin to win, in a bad match. There was a very good undercard match with Tito Santana & Rick Martel & Paul Roma & Jim Powers & Rougeaus & Brian Blair & Jim Brunzell & Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith over Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart & Haku (Meng) & Tama (Tonga Kid) & Demolition (Bill Eadie & Barry Darsow) & Nikolai Volkoff & Boris Zhukov & Greg Valentine & Dino Bravo in 37:00 as the in-ring highlight of the show. Starrcade, which Crockett expected to draw millions, did do a 3.3 percent buy rate in its five markets (41,000 buys) and a sellout 9,000 fans paying $180,000 to the UIC Pavilion in Chicago headlined by Ric Flair pinning Ronnie Garvin in 17:25 in a cage match to win the NWA world heavyweight title for the sixth time. The show was generally considered a booking disaster, particularly since Chicago fans expected the Road Warriors to win the NWA tag titles from Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson, but instead got a Dusty finish. Chicago, which Crockett had worked on a string of consecutive sellouts, was never able to draw well for NWA or later WCW for several years largely due to the reaction to this show. Did the company learn by not booking any more Dusty finishes?
  129.  
  130. 1994 - During the bottoming out period for WWF business, Vince McMahon went from the small (by the standards) scientific great worker to the monster giant as world champion. Bret Hart, who held the title until three days earlier (they used Bob Backlund as a transitional champion) was replaced as the kingpin of the WWF for a one year period by Kevin Nash, then wrestling as Diesel. Diesel won the title with a pin in just eight seconds, trying to create a new Bruno Sammartino or Hulk Hogan. The reign was a total failure, as Nash turned out to be the worst drawing champion in company history, with crowds averaging just 3,000 paid during his year on top, with business turning around immediately one year later when Hart was put back on top. The MSG show drew about 7,300 fans.
  131.  
  132. 1995 - Jim Cornette folded Smoky Mountain Wrestling. WCW ran its first World War III three-ring Battle Royal, won by Randy Savage to capture the vacant WCW heavyweight title before a sellout of 12,000, of which 8,038 paid $113,000 to the Scope in Norfolk VA and doing a weak 0.43 buy rate
  133.  
  134. 1998 - Hulk Hogan appears on the Tonight show and announced his retirement from pro wrestling to run for President of the United States to capitalize on the publicity Jesse Ventura got for shockingly winning the Governorship. Jay Leno carved Hogan up like a Thanksgiving turkey on the show joking that Hogan would probably be back wrestling in six weeks, which was almost exactly the time table for his return.
  135.  
  136. Wrestling Observer Live airs every Monday through Friday 6-8 p.m. Eastern time and 3-5 p.m. Pacific time on the eyada.com sports channel. Join myself and Bryan Alvarez for the best in wrestling talk, either live during those hours, or at your convenience anytime by checking out any one of the recent shows on the web site. Tomorrow we'll be running down all the weekend news. Vampiro is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday. Dusty Rhodes will be our guest on Wednesday and Sheldon Goldberg on Friday. You can always join the show live at 1-877-392-3299 option two.
  137.  
  138. ~~~~~
  139.  
  140. ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY
  141.  
  142. 1942 - Bobby Managoff defeats Yvon Robert in Houston to win the National Wrestling Association world heavyweight title, at that point the leading world title in the industry
  143.  
  144. 1949 - The National Wrestling Alliance announces that Lou Thesz is the World heavyweight champion. Thesz, who held the title of the National Wrestling Association, was scheduled two days earlier for the unification match against Orville Brown, who was the first announced champion of the National Wrestilng Alliance, in St. Louis. Brown was injured a few weeks earlier in an auto accident in Missouri and was unable to wrestle. Thesz, who was actually scheduled to lose the match and Brown would become the first touring NWA champion, ended up holding the title for most of the next eight years (with one lapse of a few months largely to give him a vacation) and would be considered by many due to that as the greatest post-TV era pro wrestler.
  145.  
  146. 1950 - Hiroaki Hamada was born. As El Gran Hamada, he was one of the premier smaller wrestlers of all-time, in Mexico in his prime as one of the best workers around, and later in his career wrestling for Michinoku Pro in Japan. At the age of 50, he's still going strong.
  147.  
  148. 1980 - At the annual Thanksgiving show at the Greensboro Coliseum, Paul Jones & Masked Superstar (Bill Eadie) won the NWA tag titles from Ray Stevens & Jimmy Snuka. . . At the annual Thanksgiving tag team tournament at the Omni in Atlanta, The Fabulous Freebirds, Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts, emerged victorious over Robert Fuller & Stan Frazier (later Uncle Elmer) in the finals
  149.  
  150. 1983 - In the beginning of the destruction of a new market, the Georgia Championship Wrestling lucrative Ohio tours starting being destroyed by the same booking problems that have plagued the company and its successor. In this case, they began a week where in the house show main events, Buzz & Brett Sawyer would win the National tag team titles from the Road Warriors. When TV was taped the following Saturday, there was no acknowledgement any of this had taken place.
  151.  
  152. 1986 - Starrcade '86, The Night of the Skywalkers took place at both the Omni in Atlanta and the Greensboro Coliseum and in numerous closed-circuit locations throughout the Carolinas. Greensboro drew a sellout 15,500 fans live and another 3,500 in an adjacent closed-circuit theater to handle the overflow and a then company record of $380,000. Atlanta drew a near sellout of 14,000 fans paying $280,000. Greensboro main event saw the Rock & Roll Express retain the NWA tag titles over Ole & Arn Anderson. In Atlanta, the double feature was Road Warriors over Midnight Express in the scaffold match that ruined Jim Cornette's knees for good when he took a bump off the top, and Ric Flair going to a DDQ with Nikita Koloff for the NWA title. The card didn't end until 12:30 a.m. the next morning, and nobody left early
  153.  
  154. 1998 - Dennis Rodman files suit against WCW. Rodman, who earned a $1.5 million base and another $750,000 based on the strong buy rate for his match on July 12 of that year with Hulk Hogan against Karl Malone & DDP, was suing for yet another $750,000 based on the belief of what the base for his incentives should have been. His first PPV had an incentive base of a company $3.9 million gross, but this contract was $5 million and he claimed he wasn't informed of the change before signing. The case was settled, with the result being WCW used Rodman for another PPV at Road Wild in 1999. Rodman will be headlining another PPV this coming Friday.
  155.  
  156. 1999 - Hiro Matsuda, real name Yasuhiro Kojima, passed away from cancer of the colon, kidneys, liver and stomach at his home in Tampa at the age of 62. Matsuda, the leading professional in-ring rival of Danny Hodge during the height of the NWA world junior heavyweight championship and a part owner and noted trainer and shooter in the Tampa area, had a long and colorful career which included training such wrestlers as Hulk Hogan, Lex Luger, Riki Choshu, Keiji Muto, Ted DiBiase, Ron Simmons, Yoshiaki Yatsu and Paul Orndorff. His January 24, 1966 match where he teamed with Antonio Inoki to win the NWA world tag team titles from Eddie Graham & Sammy Steamboat in Memphis is the first match Lance Russell, with 50 years of watching wrestling, always mentions as the greatest match he ever saw.
  157.  
  158. ~~~~
  159.  
  160. *Some notes on the overnights in the top-40 metered markets for last night when the Raw/Nitro numbers come out. Everyone Loves Raymond did a 12.9, Becker did a 12.1 and Monday Night Football with Green Bay vs. Carolina did a 12.6, all numbers are well down from usual levels.
  161.  
  162. The new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter will be sent out tomorrow. The Observer, with the most in-depth coverage of the major wrestling news stories available anywhere, is available at P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228. Rates are $11 for 4, $28 for 12, $54 for 24 and $90 for 40 in the United States, $12 for 4, $30 for 12, $57 for 24 and $95 for 40 in Canada and Mexico, $14 for four, $36 for 12, $72 for 24 and $120 for 40 in the rest of the world. For those in Europe for fastest delivery you can send to grapplingaction@aol.com.
  163. The newest Figure Four Weekly, which has detailed TV rundowns, major news stories and the funniest perspective on wrestling around, written by Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer Live, will also be mailed tomorrow. Rates are $3 per issue, $30 for 12, $48 for 24, $90 for 52. You can order Figure Four at P.O. Box 426, Woodinville, WA 98072.
  164.  
  165. We are tentatively scheduled to have Vampiro as a guest today on Wrestling Observer Live, which airs 6-8 p.m. Eastern time and 3-5 p.m. Pacific time on the eyada.com sports channel. Dusty Rhodes is scheduled for tomorrow and Sheldon Goldberg for Friday. You can also contact us during that time period at 1-877-392-3299 option two. You can click on at your convenience to listen to the latest show, or one of numerous recent shows available on archives.
  166.  
  167. ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY
  168.  
  169. 1963 - The Crusher wins the AWA heavyweight title for the second time in his career beating Verne Gagne at the Minneapolis Auditorium
  170.  
  171. 1972 - Jack Brisco wins the Florida heavyweight title, beating Paul Jones, enroute to his winning the NWA world title the following summer.
  172.  
  173. 1985 - The first attempt at a dual feed pro wrestling event in history took place as Starrcade '85, "The Gathering," took place with matches at both the Omni in Atlanta and the Greensboro Coliseum. Greensboro was totally sold out with about 15,500 fans while the Omni was 500 shy of capacity, drawing about 16,000 fans. In the Atlanta main event, Dusty Rhodes apparently pinned Ric Flair to win the NWA title. The show went off the air and the card ended with Rhodes announced as champion. However, Flair continued to defend the title and it was announced on TV that before the pinfall, due to outside interference of the Four Horseman, that Flair was DQ'd, and thus kept the title. Greensboro was headlined by Magnum T.A. beating Tully Blanchard in a cage I Quit match to win the U.S. title in what became the classic I Quit match in wrestling, at least until Flair and Terry Funk did it four years later. Generally, that match was considered the show stealer and a match of the year candidate. The Rock & Roll Express also won the NWA tag titles over Ivan & Nikita Koloff. Between the two live events and more than a dozen closed-circuit locations around the Carolinas, the show grossed $936,000. While not the numbers Wrestlemania did, or even close, earlier that year, it was considered the most successful non-Wrestlemania pro wrestilng event ever in the United States. While the Dusty finish is often mocked because it was one of the reasons the Crockett territory was killed, in its infancy, it wasn't a bad idea, as coming off this finish, Rhodes and Flair played to huge houses throughout the United States for several months.
  174.  
  175. 1989 - At a television taping in Atlanta during a match with Mike Rotundo vs. Tommy Rich, ref Tommy Young suffered a whiplash on the ropes. Young, the most respected and famous referee in the industry because of his dramatic near fall counts, particularly in Ric Flair title matches, was forced to retire and eventually sued WCW for the injuries. Young is currently living in Charlotte and working as a car salesman.
  176.  
  177. 1991 - The annual Survivor Series took place at the Joe Louis Arena before 17,500 fans and drawing a 2.2 percent buy rate. Undertaker pinned Hulk Hogan in 12:43 to win the WWF title in a disputed decision to set up a PPV show one week later, the first and last time WWF ever attempted two PPV shows in consecutive weeks. Hogan was hospitalized legit after the match because Undertaker jammed Hogan's neck with his knee delivering the tombstone piledriver. Sean Mooney had to do a promo that Hogan was supposed to do, vowing revenge for the next week. Match was terrible. Best match on the show, rated as ***1/2, saw Beverly Brothers & Nasty Boys beat The Bushwhackers & The Rockers, and you can probably imagine just how good Shawn Michaels must have been. He couldn't save the show because in the Observer post-show poll, it was 10% up, 88% down and 2% in the middle, with Hogan vs. Undertaker being voted worst match by a large margin. WCW's traditional Thanksgiving spectacular at the Omni in Atlanta was down to 3,800 fans, headlined by Lex Luger over Rick Steiner to retain the WCW title. The world title wasn't able to get any heat after a hot 45:00 draw in a tag team title match with Ricky Steamboat & Dustin Rhodes retaining the belts they had just won in a match against Arn Anderson & Bobby Eaton.
  178.  
  179. ~~~~
  180.  
  181. Biggest draws this season, this year and in history
  182.  
  183. by Dave Meltzer
  184.  
  185. MAIN EVENT RATINGS DRAWS SO FAR THIS TELEVISION SEASON
  186. Period this covers is September 25, which was the first week Raw went to TNN, through November 20.
  187.  
  188. So far this season:
  189.  
  190. Best Nitro main event: Booker T vs. Vince Russo (2.68)
  191. Worst Nitro main event: Sting vs. Kevin Nash (1.82)
  192. Best Raw main event: Kurt Angle vs. HHH vs. Rock (6.63)
  193. Worst Raw main event: Rock vs. Chris Jericho (5.05)
  194.  
  195. Average for main event wrestlers based on two or more main events so far this TV season
  196.  
  197. NITRO
  198. Booker T 2.23
  199. Scott Steiner 1.97
  200. Mike Awesome 1.96
  201. Sting 1.94
  202. Kevin Nash 1.86
  203.  
  204. RAW
  205. HHH 6.36
  206. Kurt Angle 5.85
  207. Rikishi 5.73
  208. Rock 5.62
  209. Chris Benoit 5.49
  210. Steve Austin 5.43
  211.  
  212. As we've mentioned before, what is interesting about this is comparing TV ratings with buy rates. Austin, the lowest rated main event draw in the WWF is, by far, the biggest PPV drawing card. Since PPV is the major money stream, it more than justifies his position. However, Austin's PPV appearances so far in 2000 were all novelties, his one-time comeback, his return, and his first match back. The first non-novelty Austin PPV would have been Survivor Series, which we don't have figures on yet.
  213. As far as comparing PPV drawing cards, and in order to make this a fair comparison, we're not including Wrestlemania in the averages. Here is how everyone stands on average for the shows they either headlined, based on having two or more main events and/or position of being the top draw on the show (in the case of Austin on two big buy raets that he didn't actually wrsetle in the main event of).
  214.  
  215. Steve Austin 1.45
  216. Mick Foley 1.42
  217. HHH 1.29
  218. Rock 1.19
  219.  
  220. For WCW, based on two or more main events, and clearly this basically says that nobody in the company is a draw:
  221. Sid Vicious 0.21
  222. DDP 0.20
  223. Jeff Jarrett 0.19
  224. Hulk Hogan 0.18
  225. Kevin Nash 0.18
  226. Booker T 0.16
  227.  
  228. Here is how the current all-time list of big drawing (1.0 buy rate or better) PPV headliners in history
  229. 1. Hulk Hogan
  230. 2. Ric Flair
  231. 3. Steve Austin
  232. 4. Rock
  233. 5. Bret Hart
  234. 6. HHH
  235. 7. Sting
  236. 8. Lex Luger
  237. 9. Mick Foley
  238. Randy Savage
  239. Undertaker
  240.  
  241. And here is how the current all-time list of headlining the most live events that have drawn more than 30,000 in attendance stands
  242. 1. Shinya Hashimoto
  243. 2. Antonio Inoki
  244. Genichiro Tenryu
  245. 4. Hulk Hogan
  246. 5. Keiji Muto
  247. Nobuhiko Takada
  248. 7. Atsushi Onita
  249. 8. Tatsumi Fujinami
  250. Riki Choshu
  251. 10. Kensuke Sasaki
  252. Naoya Ogawa
  253.  
  254. ~~~~~~
  255.  
  256. ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (and there wasn't much in U.S. History)
  257.  
  258. 1953 - Rikidozan set up his first shot at the NWA world heavyweight title by winning an eight-contenders one-night tournament at the Honolulu Civic Auditorium
  259.  
  260. 1975 - The Fuji TV network begins airing All Japan womens wrestling telecast on a twice per month basis. Very quickly, largely due to the popularity of The Beauty Pair, Jackie Sato & Maki Ueda, the show started delivering incredible TV ratings and paved the way to its 80s glory days.
  261.  
  262. 1989 - The old UWF promoted its biggest show in history, "U-Cosmos," at the Tokyo Dome before a sellout 60,000 fans paying $2.9 million, the first pro wrestling sellout at the Tokyo Dome. The crowd was at the time, the largest in the history of Japanese wrestling and the gate was at the time, the all-time record for pro wrestling. The seven-match show was headlined by Akira Maeda beat European judo champion Willie Wilhelm via submission. Maurice Smith, a champion kickboxer, who would go on to far more fame as the only man to win both the EFC and UFC heavyweight title, knocked out Minoru Suzuki on the undercard in a worked match. Former U.S. Olympian Duane Koslowski, who competed in Greco-roman at the Seoul Olympics, also made his pro debut losing via submission to Nobuhiko Takada in the best match on the show
  263.  
  264. 1998 - All Japan Women held its first Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Inducted into the Hall of Fame were Japanese pioneers that have been largely forgotten like Sadako Inokari, Yukiko Tomoe, Chiyo Obata, Akio Kyo, Miyoko Hoshino, Jumbo Miyamoto, Mach Fumiake, Mariko Akagi as well as the legends like Jackie Sato, Jaguar Yokota, Devil Masami, Chigusa Nagayo, Lioness Asuka, Dump Matsumoto, Yukari Omori, Bull Nakano, Akira Hokuto and Aja Kong.
  265.  
  266. ~~~~
  267.  
  268. Morning update; Beyond the Mat; This Day in History
  269.  
  270. by Dave Meltzer
  271.  
  272. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  273.  
  274. Among the new items up on the site right now are Alex Marvez' interview with Bill Goldberg, as well as my review of this coming Saturday's ECW Hardcore TV show, Aaron Wilson's review of this coming Saturday's Ohio Valley Wrestling TV show which was taped last night, Alex Marvez' review of last night's Thunder TV show, Bryan Alvarez checks in with more readers feedback and his comments as well as a preview of this coming week's Figure Four Weekly Newsletter.
  275.  
  276. We'll have several updates here throughout the day.
  277.  
  278. *Nicole Bass remains hospitalized in critical condition with pancreatitis
  279.  
  280. *Lunatic Wrestling Federation on 12/3 in Merriontte Park, IL at 5 p.m. on 115 Bourbon St.
  281.  
  282. *Pancrase line-up for 12/4 at Budokan Hall on a show which will include a retirement ceremony for Masakatsu Funaki, one of the original founders of the company. The show is being built around an interpromotional angle with Pancrase vs. Seikendo (Satoru Sayama's promotion which has slightly different rules in that they don't allow submissions):
  283. --Nathan Marquardt vs. Kiuma Kunioku for the King of Pancrase middleweight title
  284. --Yoshiki Takahashi vs. Sanae Kikuta
  285. --Kei Yamamiya vs. Dennis Kang
  286. --Yuki Kondo vs. Minoru Suzuki (this is a sparring exhibition to show the conditioning of Kondo publicly to build for his UFC middleweight title match on 12/16 with Tito Ortiz)
  287. --Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Ismailov Magomed (Seikendo fighter)
  288. --Daisuke Ishii vs. Grilauskas Darius (Seikendo fighter)
  289. --Kengo Watanabe vs. Kikalishvili Ramaz (Seikendo fighter)
  290. --Jason DeLucia vs. Katsuhisa Fujii
  291. --Shonie Carter vs. Yuji Hoshino
  292.  
  293. *The Beyond the Mat home video, priced at $19.95 (as compared to the high price of the first home video which was aimed more at the rental market), will hit the shelves on Monday. The video will contain 35 minutes of footage that has never aired before, including on the DVD version, with more footage backstage with Chyna, Mick Foley, Taz, Tommy Dreamer and Paul Heyman.
  294.  
  295. *Mitsuharu Misawa suffered a right knee ligament injury in his match this past Sunday. The severity of the injury at this point is unknown but thus far there is no indication he'll be taking any time off. (thanks to Zach Arnold)
  296.  
  297. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CURRENT ISSUE OF THE WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER
  298. --Detailed rundown of the current situation in ECW
  299. --Detailed rundown of WCW Mayhem
  300. --Career rundown of Rikidozan's son, Yoshihiro Momota, a long-time Japanese pro wrestling figure dating back three decades, who passed away this past week
  301. --Observer and eyada poll results
  302. --Results from every major league pro wrestling show held around the world over the past week
  303. --Reviews of all the major TV shows of the past week
  304. --Rundown of the pro wrestling angle with Muhammad Ali's daughter
  305. --More promotions closing down in Japan
  306. --Detailed rundown of the weekend shows in Puerto Rico
  307. --Career rundown of Eddie Sullivan, who passed away this past week, a veteran wrestler in the 70s in many regional promotions
  308. --Talk about the show expected to break the all-time attendance record for the Tokyo Dome next week
  309. --Complete UFC PPV line-up for 12/16
  310. --All the latest WCW and WWF news
  311.  
  312. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter is available at P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228. Rates are $11 for 4, $28 for 12, $54 for 24, and $90 for 40 in the United States, $12 for 4, $30 for 12, $57 for 24, and $95 for 40 in Canada, $14 for 4, $36 for 12, $72 for 24 and $120 for 40 in the rest of the world. For European readers, you can get the fastest Observer delivery by checking in at grapplingaction@aol.com
  313.  
  314. *Today on Wrestling Observer Live 6-8 p.m. Eastern time and 3-5 p.m. Pacific time on the eyada.com sports channel, Bryan Alvarez and myself will be talking about the news and catching up on phone calls and e-mails. Steve Seiden, the promoter of tomorrow's night's iGeneration Wrestling PPV with Dennis Rodman vs. Curt Hennig (a taped show from 7/29 in Sydney, Australia) will be dropping in. Other guests scheduled include promoter/historian Sheldon Goldberg tomorrow, Jim Cornette on Monday, reporter Mike Mooneyham on Wednesday, Jim Mitchell (Sinister Minister) a week from today and promoter/trainer/announcer/wrestler Les Thatcher next Friday. You can always call us up between those hours at 1-877-392-3299 option two.
  315.  
  316. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY
  317.  
  318. 1928 - In one of the most famous matches of all-time, whether historically accurate or not, The Great Gama defeated Stanislaus Zbyszko in Paddulo, India before a crowd reputed to be 100,000 fans, the largest crowd ever to witness a pro wrestling event in history. There are reports of this match lasting anywhere from four seconds to five minutes. Zbyszko by this point in time was 53 years old. Although any history of wrestling dating back this far, and throw in the fact it was in a foreign country, is more conjecture than anything, but there were many historians who claim Gama as the greatest wrestler who ever lived and as the superior to Frank Gotch. The Indians wrestled a totally different style, and who is to say what was legit, and Zbyszko, while still a pro wrestling star in the U.S. at the time, was well past his prime by this point. Whenever you change the style, the expert at the style is always going to have the advantage.
  319.  
  320. 1976 - In another chapter of one of the most heated feuds in Carolinas history, and the feud that put Ric Flair on the map as a major singles headliner, Wahoo McDaniel captured the old Mid Atlantic heavyweight title from Flair in Raleigh, NC
  321.  
  322. 1979 - Antonio Inoki defeated Bob Backlund in Tokushima, Japan to capture the WWF heavyweight title. This title switch was never acknowledged by the WWF in the United States until some 15 years later. Backlund left Japan with the title after a match one week later with a disputed decision.
  323.  
  324. 1997 - Shane Douglas defeated Bam Bam Bigelow to headline ECW's November to Remember PPV and capture the ECW heavyweight title for the fourth and final time in a match in the outskirts of his home town of Pittsburgh
  325.  
  326. 1998 - Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, Bill Goldberg and The Undertaker are put on the cover of TV Guide, leading it to being one of the best selling issues of the magazine of the year. It was the first full pro wrestling cover of the best selling magazine in the country, but its success paved the way for several other sets of four covers over the next two years.
  327.  
  328. ~~~~~~~
  329.  
  330. 2000: Nov
  331. Dec
  332.  
  333.  
  334. 2001: Jan
  335.  
  336. Feb
  337.  
  338. Mar
  339.  
  340. Apr
  341.  
  342. May
  343.  
  344. Jun
  345.  
  346. 12/31/2000 2:50:00 PM
  347. Sunday update; King of Indies; ECW PPV matches; PR, PPW and more
  348.  
  349. 12/31/2000 2:10:00 PM
  350. Osaka Dome report; Major angles set up for 2001
  351.  
  352. 12/31/2000 1:44:00 PM
  353. Smackdown/Heat tapings from 12-30 in San Antonio; three-way for 1-8 Raw title shot
  354.  
  355. 12/31/2000 3:41:00 AM
  356. This Day in History 12-28
  357.  
  358. 12/30/2000 8:41:00 PM
  359. Raw tease; Osaka Dome preview; Ten biggest stories of century
  360.  
  361. 12/30/2000 1:51:00 PM
  362. This Day in Wrestling History 12-30
  363.  
  364. 12/30/2000 1:12:00 PM
  365. First Saturday update; Raw spoilers; Why ratings should go up
  366.  
  367. 12/29/2000 8:03:00 PM
  368. This Day in Wrestling History 12-29
  369.  
  370. 12/29/2000 4:21:00 PM
  371. Smackdown final ratings
  372.  
  373. 12/29/2000 3:31:00 PM
  374. WWF ratings for the week, it's worse than it sounds on the surface
  375.  
  376. 12/29/2000 3:28:00 PM
  377. Friday update; Smackdown; Jarrett; Candido
  378.  
  379. 12/27/2000 6:06:00 PM
  380. Afternoon headlines; UFC wants Ortiz vs. Shamrock; Time Warner lists Hall
  381.  
  382. 12/27/2000 5:50:00 PM
  383. This Day in Wrestling History 12-27
  384.  
  385. 12/27/2000 1:45:00 PM
  386. Wrestling Observer Newsletter highlights
  387.  
  388. 12/27/2000 1:44:00 PM
  389. WCW announcer fired; WWF shows sets record low rating
  390.  
  391. 12/27/2000 12:30:00 PM
  392. Latest update; WWC new years spectacular; UK WrestleMania tour
  393.  
  394. 12/27/2000 12:28:00 PM
  395. Playboy; Wrestler of the Year; MVP of the Century; Rock on E!
  396.  
  397. 12/27/2000 11:46:00 AM
  398. Vince McMahon's shocking allegations in Playboy
  399.  
  400. 12/26/2000 5:09:00 PM
  401. Tuesday afternoon headlines; WWF sale; New Jack; Corino; Galavision
  402.  
  403. 12/26/2000 12:41:00 PM
  404. First Tuesday update
  405.  
  406. 12/26/2000 6:04:00 AM
  407. This Day in Wrestling History 12-26
  408.  
  409. 12/25/2000 6:34:00 PM
  410. This Day in Wrestling History 12-25
  411.  
  412. 12/24/2000 9:25:00 PM
  413. Smackdown notes; Tag tourney finals; Cable ratings
  414.  
  415. 12/24/2000 3:15:00 PM
  416. This Day in Wrestling History 12-24
  417.  
  418. 12/24/2000 2:03:00 PM
  419. Heyman denies extra security
  420.  
  421. 12/24/2000 1:22:00 PM
  422. Sunday update; Smackdown spoilers; Jarrett; RINGS vs. Pride
  423.  
  424. 12/23/2000 11:54:00 PM
  425. Notes from ECW
  426.  
  427. 12/23/2000 11:44:00 PM
  428. This Day in Wrestling History 12-20 and 12-21
  429.  
  430. 12/23/2000 9:19:00 PM
  431. ECW Arena report for 12-23
  432.  
  433. 12/23/2000 5:46:00 PM
  434. This Day in Wrestling History 12-23
  435.  
  436. 12/23/2000 4:40:00 PM
  437. Quick ECW update for tonight
  438.  
  439. 12/23/2000 2:15:00 PM
  440. First Saturday update; WCW backstage; ECW questions
  441.  
  442. 12/23/2000 3:26:00 AM
  443. Pride up to the minute report
  444.  
  445. 12/23/2000 1:14:00 AM
  446. WWF Raw Spoilers 12-22 Chattanooga
  447.  
  448. 12/22/2000 8:43:00 PM
  449. This Day in Wrestling History 12-22
  450.  
  451. 12/22/2000 4:16:00 PM
  452. Smackdown ratings
  453.  
  454. 12/22/2000 3:35:00 PM
  455. Bulldog update; XFL loses in court; Big Chyna push coming
  456.  
  457. 12/22/2000 3:18:00 PM
  458. WCW sale update
  459.  
  460. 12/22/2000 1:40:00 PM
  461. Early Friday update; Bulldog; RINGS; Goldberg
  462.  
  463. 12/22/2000 6:22:00 AM
  464. Two huge nights of action around the world
  465.  
  466. 12/22/2000 5:37:00 AM
  467. Valentine; UPW; Farmclub; Nitro
  468.  
  469. 12/21/2000 9:12:00 PM
  470. Some notes on UPW and wrestlers on the show last night
  471.  
  472. 12/21/2000 2:59:00 PM
  473. Thursday morning update
  474.  
  475. 12/20/2000 11:06:00 PM
  476. Some Wednesday night notes
  477.  
  478. 12/20/2000 3:10:00 AM
  479. New Japan complete 1-4 Tokyo Dome card
  480.  
  481. 12/20/2000 12:04:00 AM
  482. Quick Smackdown spoilers
  483.  
  484. 12/19/2000 10:44:00 PM
  485. This Day in Wrestling History 12-19
  486.  
  487. 12/19/2000 8:58:00 PM
  488. WCW Syn line-up; MTV wrestling notes
  489.  
  490. 12/19/2000 5:14:00 PM
  491. Quick Thunder report for 12-20
  492.  
  493. 12/19/2000 3:43:00 PM
  494. Monday night ratings; bad news on both sides
  495.  
  496. 12/19/2000 1:58:00 PM
  497. Smackdown facing heavy competition
  498.  
  499. 12/19/2000 12:14:00 PM
  500. First Tuesday update; thoughts on WCW after last night; Foley; Ratings
  501.  
  502. 12/19/2000 6:07:00 AM
  503. WCW backstage notes; Sid, Page, Syn main; Madden
  504.  
  505. 12/19/2000 1:59:00 AM
  506. Details on Page/Steiner brawl; Scott Hall still incarcerated
  507.  
  508. 12/18/2000 10:51:00 PM
  509. Monday notes; Nitro; DDP vs. Steiner; UPW show
  510.  
  511. 12/18/2000 4:39:00 PM
  512. TV schedule update for the next two weeks
  513.  
  514. 12/18/2000 12:41:00 PM
  515. Monday first update; Japan MVP; Starrcade feedback
  516.  
  517. 12/18/2000 3:04:00 AM
  518. This Day in Wrestling History 12-18
  519.  
  520. 12/18/2000 12:42:00 AM
  521. Weekend indie notes; Cruiserweight match on Nitro
  522.  
  523. 12/17/2000 11:05:00 PM
  524. Starrcade report
  525.  
  526. 12/17/2000 7:58:00 PM
  527. Starrcade PPV as it happens
  528.  
  529. 12/17/2000 7:48:00 PM
  530. This Day in Wrestling History 12-16
  531.  
  532. 12/17/2000 7:24:00 PM
  533. This Day in Wrestling History 12-17
  534.  
  535. 12/17/2000 1:18:00 PM
  536. First Sunday update; ECW stars in PR, Starrcade update
  537.  
  538. 12/16/2000 7:44:00 PM
  539. Quick afternoon update; ECW; WCW and Sabu
  540.  
  541. 12/16/2000 6:58:00 PM
  542. One of Mexico's most famous wrestling legends passes away
  543.  
  544. 12/16/2000 1:30:00 PM
  545. WWF news notes from Ross Report
  546.  
  547. 12/16/2000 3:15:00 AM
  548. Late Friday update; ECW in Queens; EMLL PPV; Starrcade
  549.  
  550. 12/15/2000 7:56:00 PM
  551. Ratings correction
  552.  
  553. 12/15/2000 4:46:00 PM
  554. This Day in Wrestling History 12-15
  555.  
  556. 12/15/2000 2:33:00 PM
  557. ECW surprise, Mushnick column, Foley interview
  558.  
  559. 12/15/2000 8:25:00 AM
  560. Friday update; Three PPV shows this weekend
  561.  
  562. 12/14/2000 9:24:00 PM
  563. This Day in Wrestling HIstory 12-14
  564.  
  565. 12/14/2000 5:20:00 PM
  566. XFL projections improve; Thunder ratings; NJ PPV
  567.  
  568. 12/14/2000 12:35:00 PM
  569. First Thursday update; WCW sale, IWGP tourney
  570.  
  571. 12/13/2000 4:46:00 PM
  572. WWF wrestlers stranded, WCW ratings stranded
  573.  
  574. 12/13/2000 4:01:00 PM
  575. Quick afternoon update; Alvarez, Dome TV; PPV explosion
  576.  
  577. 12/13/2000 3:36:00 PM
  578. This day in Wrestling History 12-13
  579.  
  580. 12/13/2000 1:19:00 PM
  581. Wednesday update; Ventura, iGN and Observer highlights
  582.  
  583. 12/13/2000 1:41:00 AM
  584. Smackdown and Heat results from Little Rock
  585.  
  586. 12/12/2000 11:23:00 PM
  587. This day in Wrestling history 12-12 part two
  588.  
  589. 12/12/2000 5:43:00 PM
  590. This Day in Wrestling History 12-12 part one
  591.  
  592. 12/12/2000 4:20:00 PM
  593. Raw; Copperfield numbers
  594.  
  595. 12/12/2000 3:14:00 PM
  596. Thunder previews; Sid can't find building; Goldberg nixes angle
  597.  
  598. 12/12/2000 2:50:00 PM
  599. Tonight's Nitro report; Funk returns; how not to build babyfaces
  600.  
  601. 12/12/2000 1:57:00 PM
  602. Tuesday first update; Ratings and site notes
  603.  
  604. 12/12/2000 2:06:00 AM
  605. WWF injury status update
  606.  
  607. 12/11/2000 1:47:00 PM
  608. First Monday update; King of Indies
  609.  
  610. 12/11/2000 4:01:00 AM
  611. Gunn's stock drops; final evening update
  612.  
  613. 12/11/2000 3:49:00 AM
  614. This Day in Wrestling History 12-11
  615.  
  616. 12/11/2000 1:08:00 AM
  617. Weekend news notes; Undertaker's music, New Japan big show
  618.  
  619. 12/10/2000 11:01:00 PM
  620. WWF Armageddon report
  621.  
  622. 12/10/2000 8:49:00 PM
  623. Armageddon to this point
  624.  
  625. 12/10/2000 4:48:00 PM
  626. Today in Pro Wrestling History 12-10
  627.  
  628. 12/10/2000 3:17:00 PM
  629. Update on WCW TV situation
  630.  
  631. 12/10/2000 1:33:00 PM
  632. First Sunday update; Hoost wins GP; Fights for WWF tickets
  633.  
  634. 12/9/2000 10:28:00 PM
  635. Shamrock in shocking New Years Eve main event
  636.  
  637. 12/9/2000 3:00:00 PM
  638. This Day in Wrestling History 12-9; Observer info
  639.  
  640. 12/9/2000 1:31:00 PM
  641. Williams & Rotundo win AJ tourney; Dome and PPV mains announced
  642.  
  643. 12/9/2000 1:30:00 PM
  644. WWF Armageddon line-up update
  645.  
  646. 12/8/2000 8:35:00 PM
  647. Inoki press conference; Bozell speaks
  648.  
  649. 12/8/2000 4:17:00 PM
  650. Hogan on Bubba the Love Sponge; the latest nonsense
  651.  
  652. 12/8/2000 4:07:00 PM
  653. This Day in Wrestling History 12-8
  654.  
  655. 12/8/2000 3:37:00 PM
  656. Aft. update; More Armageddon bouts; Observer notes; weekend schedule
  657.  
  658. 12/8/2000 1:28:00 PM
  659. Early Smackdown numbers, DOS WWF tryout
  660.  
  661. 12/8/2000 1:02:00 PM
  662. More WCW sale talk
  663.  
  664. 12/8/2000 4:16:00 AM
  665. New Japan announces more Tokyo Dome matches
  666.  
  667. 12/8/2000 12:46:00 AM
  668. Van Dam's strongest statements on ECW, talks with WWF, WCW
  669.  
  670. 12/7/2000 10:43:00 PM
  671. WCW insanity; Nitro on Tuesday; Madden suspended; new house show main
  672.  
  673. 12/7/2000 4:11:00 PM
  674. Siegel schedules meeting; yet another Hall update
  675.  
  676. 12/7/2000 4:03:00 PM
  677. Today in Wrestling History 12-7
  678.  
  679. 12/7/2000 3:18:00 PM
  680. Ross media conference notes; talks on Van Dam, Rena Mero, Lynn
  681.  
  682. 12/7/2000 10:55:00 AM
  683. Hall not at UPW; WWF Manhunt TV show details; Pancrase card
  684.  
  685. 12/6/2000 11:58:00 PM
  686. Hall coming to UPW
  687.  
  688. 12/6/2000 9:13:00 PM
  689. Four-way in All Japan tourney finals
  690.  
  691. 12/6/2000 4:33:00 PM
  692. Today in Wrestling History
  693.  
  694. 12/6/2000 4:32:00 PM
  695. Wrestling Observer Newsletter preview; Eyada show notes
  696.  
  697. 12/6/2000 3:30:00 PM
  698. Fujita vs. Yvel added to Pride
  699.  
  700. 12/6/2000 3:17:00 PM
  701. REMIX show; McMahon announcement; new WWF signee
  702.  
  703. 12/6/2000 3:13:00 PM
  704. Big shows Friday night in Mexico
  705.  
  706. 12/6/2000 1:13:00 AM
  707. AJ tournament update
  708.  
  709. 12/5/2000 4:24:00 PM
  710. Vince makes no difference; Monday ratings rundown
  711.  
  712. 12/5/2000 3:04:00 PM
  713. Womens Shoot Fighting Report
  714.  
  715. 12/5/2000 3:03:00 PM
  716. Ken Shamrock Update
  717.  
  718. 12/5/2000 2:49:00 PM
  719. Thunder report , Jim Ross and more.
  720.  
  721. 12/5/2000 2:45:00 PM
  722. Showtime PPV Analysis
  723.  
  724. 12/5/2000 2:42:00 PM
  725. Scott Hall
  726.  
  727. 12/5/2000 2:37:00 PM
  728. Show Results
  729.  
  730. 12/5/2000 2:34:00 PM
  731. Dec 5 In Wrestling History
  732.  
  733. 12/5/2000 2:27:00 PM
  734. Tuesday First Update; McMahon, Sakuraba .
  735.  
  736. 12/4/2000 3:49:00 PM
  737. WCW afternoon update/Nitro matches/Bischoff update
  738.  
  739. 12/4/2000 1:07:00 PM
  740. Monday morning update; Vampiro; Shamrock; History
  741.  
  742. 12/4/2000 2:05:00 AM
  743. Heyman gives crew post-show speech, announces next PPV site
  744.  
  745. 12/4/2000 12:42:00 AM
  746. Today in Wrestling history; All Japan tourney
  747.  
  748. 12/3/2000 10:58:00 PM
  749. Corino keeps title, ECW PPV flash report
  750.  
  751. 12/3/2000 7:22:00 PM
  752. Last minute ECW news
  753.  
  754. 12/3/2000 1:30:00 PM
  755. Sunday first update; Lynn turns on Sabu; Lynn WWF update
  756.  
  757. 12/2/2000 11:23:00 PM
  758. Saturday evening news briefs
  759.  
  760. 12/2/2000 9:08:00 PM
  761. Quick results of WWF UK PPV
  762.  
  763. 12/1/2000 8:38:00 PM
  764. Jericho PR, Sammartino honored
  765.  
  766. 12/1/2000 3:23:00 PM
  767. Weekend schedule notes
  768.  
  769. 12/1/2000 1:51:00 PM
  770. Smackdown early numbers
  771.  
  772. 12/1/2000 12:24:00 PM
  773. Jericho, Rickson, This Day in History
  774.  
  775. 12/1/2000 10:43:00 AM
  776. Hashimoto's debut in NOAH announced
  777.  
  778. 12/1/2000 10:42:00 AM
  779. IWGP tourney and PPV announced by New Japan
  780.  
  781. 12/1/2000 10:40:00 AM
  782. Shamrock fighters dominant
  783.  
  784. 12/1/2000 3:36:00 AM
  785. Guess who is getting into wrestling?
  786.  
  787. ~~~
  788.  
  789. Jericho, Rickson, This Day in History
  790.  
  791. by Dave Meltzer
  792.  
  793. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  794.  
  795. *Chris Jericho was on the "Big Breakfast," UK morning show today to
  796. promote tomorrow's UK only PPV show in Sheffield, England. Said to be
  797. very poorly researched by the people at the show. Funniest line was said
  798. to be when the hostess of the show asked Jericho if he was proud "that he
  799. holds the record for having 1,004 holds." You may remember that from a
  800. WCW program with Dean Malenko and an interview he did on a Nitro.
  801. (thanks to Antony Evans)
  802.  
  803. *Rickson Gracie will be meeting with Antonio Inoki and Tatsuo Kawamura on
  804. Sunday in Japan to attempt to put together a Tokyo Dome show for this
  805. fall against Naoya Ogawa (thanks to Chris Hodgson)
  806.  
  807. For the most in-depth pro wrestling info, we do the Wrestling Observer
  808. Newsletter at P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228. It's $11 for 4
  809. issues, $28 for 12, $54 for 24, $90 for 40 in the U.S., $12 for 4, $30
  810. for 12, $57 for 24, $95 for 40 in Canada and $14 for 4, $36 for 12, $72
  811. for 24 and $120 for 40 in the rest of the world. For those in Europe,
  812. for fastest delivery you can sign up at grapplingaction@aol.com.
  813.  
  814. Wrestling Observer Live co-host Bryan Alvarez does Figure Four Weekly,
  815. which is the funniest look at wrestling anywhere with detailed rundowns
  816. of the weekly TV shows as well as major wrestling headlines at P.O. Box
  817. 426, Woodinville, WA 98072. A sample issue is $3. You can order 12 for
  818. $30 and 52 for $90. It also comes out weekly.
  819.  
  820. *Today on Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez and myself will be
  821. joined by wrestling historian Sheldon Goldberg. We'll be taking your
  822. phone calls as well as e-mails for the entire show, which airs 6-8 p.m.
  823. Eastern time and 3-5 p.m. Pacific time on the eyada.com sports channel.
  824. You can join the most popular show on the top rated web exclusive talk
  825. station every Monday through Friday and call in between those hours at
  826. 1-877-392-3299 option two. What are your thoughts about the anniversary
  827. segments last night? Entertaining? Too soapish? Let us know, as well
  828. as your thoughts on the current and future wrestling scene. Next week
  829. will be a busy one as we've got Jim Cornette on Monday, reporter Mike
  830. Mooneyham on Wednesday, Jim "Sinister Minister" Mitchell on Thursday and
  831. Les Thatcher on Friday.
  832.  
  833. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY
  834.  
  835. 1906 - In one of the most famous and controversial matches in pro
  836. wrestling history, Fred Beell, for whom the term "biel throw" was named
  837. after, defeated Frank Gotch to win what is now commonly called the
  838. American heavyweight championship in New Orleans. Wrestling legend long
  839. had it that Gotch hit his head on the ringpost, and was knocked out, thus
  840. lost the match to a man much smaller than he was. That story is likely
  841. not true, because rings in those days rarely had ropes or posts. Many
  842. other stories about what happened, including Gotch being thrown into an
  843. orchestra pit (Gotch himself claimed that just before his death) causing
  844. him to be counted out surfaced in the years that passed. A newspaper
  845. account from another city (not New Orleans) in that time period had Gotch
  846. hitting his head on the ground from a fall and being knocked out in the
  847. second fall, and being groggy and pinned quickly in the third fall. Any
  848. history from that period is speculative at best, but Gotch regained the
  849. title in a rematch just 17 days later. Many see this quick title change
  850. as an early example of working a program. Since all of whom would have
  851. been in on this would be long dead, what was and wasn't legit as it
  852. regards this match and this program and what really happened can best be
  853. chalked up to wrestling legend and talked about more for entertainment
  854. than any factual basis of what it really was and what really happened.
  855.  
  856. 1926 - In what would have been a unification match to determine the real
  857. world champion being warring promotions, Strangler Lewis failed to appear
  858. for a match with Joe Stecher and forfeited a $2,500 bond, which was a ton
  859. of money in those days. What the politics behind this were at the time
  860. is speculative, but clearly Lewis' promoters didn't want to test him in a
  861. shoot with Stecher, who ten years earlier in a shooting match saw both
  862. men go five hours to a draw. Two years later, the two promotions can to
  863. a truce and a match was held, which was probably the biggest match of the
  864. era, the entire wrestling world believed was a shoot, with Lewis winning.
  865. The truth is, the sides came to a secret agreement and the match was a
  866. work.
  867.  
  868. 1938 - Mildred Burke won World Womens title from Betty Nichols for the
  869. third time in Columbus, OH, two weeks after dropping the title. Burke,
  870. whose husband, Bill Wolfe, booked and controlled womens wrestling during
  871. its heyday, held the title for the next 16 years and was likely the
  872. highest paid female athlete in North America during much of that period.
  873. After she and Wolfe split up, she continually refused to drop the title
  874. in the ring and actually lost it in a famous shoot match, which is
  875. probably the last pure shooting match for an American wrestling world
  876. title of any kind.
  877.  
  878. 1961 - In a battle of wrestlers who would go on to be considered all-time
  879. greats, as well as promoters, Fritz Von Erich won the United States title
  880. in Detroit from Dick the Bruiser.
  881.  
  882. 1973 - Stan Stasiak pins Pedro Morales at the Philadelphia Arena to win
  883. the WWWF title, ending the nearly three-year reign by Morales. What was
  884. unique about this match is they did a double pin finish, the match ended,
  885. and the ring announcer simply stated, "Let's hear it for a great
  886. champion, Pedro Morales." Stasiak's hand was never raised. Stasiak was
  887. never announced in the building as the new champion for fear of a riot
  888. and the fans at the arena live didn't know they had witnessed wrestling
  889. history until the following Saturday when the title change was announced
  890. on television.
  891.  
  892. 1978 - Big Daddy Ritter captured the North American title for Stampede
  893. Wrestling in Calgary, defeating Alo Leilani. It was the first title win
  894. in the career of Ritter, who would go on to huge fame just a few years
  895. later as The Junkyard Dog
  896.  
  897. 1995 - Negro Casas defeats El Hijo del Santo at Arena Mexico in a
  898. tournament final to crown the new NWA welterweight title. Casas would go
  899. on to lose the title the next summer as part of the J Crown tournament,
  900. and the belt, which had a history in Mexico dating back to 1946 and El
  901. Santo, would leave the EMLL and survive in name in Japan, where it is
  902. currently part of the Toryumon promotion.
  903.  
  904. ~~~
  905.  
  906. THIS DAY (ACTUALLY YESTERDAY, DECEMBER 2) IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY
  907.  
  908. 1963 - In a match that has become legendary in the martial arts world, pro wrestling shooting legend "Judo" Gene LeBelle had a mixed match against Milo Savage, the No. 5 ranked light heavyweight boxer in the world, in Salt Lake City. LeBelle won the shoot match via choke in the fourth round. I've actually got a tape of that match and may try and watch it today to give a perspective from 37 years later. As compared with today's MMA fighting, which this is considered a predecessor of, it was very primitive, but this is the match that made LeBelle's reputation in martial arts.
  909.  
  910. 1967 - Mitsu Arakawa & Dr. Moto (who later became known as Tor Kamata) won the AWA world tag team titles from Pat O'Connor & Wilbur Snyder at the International Ampitheatre in Chicago. Arakawa & Moto would go on to hold the belts for more than one year.
  911.  
  912. 1969 - In one of the most famous matches in the history of Japanese wrestling, Dory Funk Jr., defending his NWA world heavyweight title for the first time in Japan, wrestled to a 60:00 draw with Antonio Inoki in Osaka. A rematch was scheduled for Sapporo, but Inoki was fired due to some behind the scenes situations and no-showed the card, perhaps not in that order as Inoki was more likely than not, because of the problems, going to be asked to do the job. Although the tape was a hot seller in Japan because it was the biggest name in Japan against the American scientific legend of that era, because the two worked for warring promotions the rest of their careers, there was never a rematch.
  913.  
  914. 1974 - Giant Baba became the first Japanese wrestler ever to win the NWA world heavyweight title beating Jack Brisco in Kagoshima, Japan in a two out of three fall match. Baba only held the title for one week, making the first of three one-week title reigns Baba would get. This was the first time the NWA title ever changed hands in a quickie title change, something that would happen with far more frequency later in the decade after Sam Muchnick was forced out as NWA President and the protection of the credibility of the belt for short-term gain and angles became more of a thing of the past.
  915.  
  916. 1997 - Shirley Crabtree, better known as Big Daddy, to this day still the most famous native wrestler ever in England due to his being the top star when Joint Promotions was drawing monstrous television ratings, passed away at the age of 67 after a stroke. At its peak, the audience watching Crabtree every week on television was significantly larger than the audience that watches Raw and Nitro combined, in a country with a population only a fraction of that of the United States.
  917.  
  918. 1999 - The problems between the WWF and the PTC heated up, with sponsors such as the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Coca Cola and M&M; Mars as well as AT&T; pulling out of Smackdown and the stock dropping as low as 14 13/16 per share. The latest Smackdown show featured less women in skimpy outfits and less questionable language
  919.  
  920.  
  921.  
  922. Today in Wrestling history; All Japan tourney
  923.  
  924. by Dave Meltzer
  925.  
  926. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  927.  
  928. Current tag team tournament standings for All Japan:
  929.  
  930. Steve Williams & Mike Rotundo are in first place with a 5-1 record with one match remaining. There is a three-way tie for second, all three teams currently with 3-1-2 records and all with one match remaining with Johnny Smith & Taiyo Kea, Mike Barton & Jim Steele and Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi. Barry & Kendall Windham have a 3-2 record with two matches remaining. All those teams are still mathematically alive with a chance to go to the finals on 12/9 at Budokan Hall. Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya have a 3-3 record with one match left while Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai (0-4) and Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Dan Kroffat (0-5) are battling for last, with last place determined by who wins their match later this week. (thanks to Chris Hodgson)
  931.  
  932. NWA Southwest on 12/1 in North Richland Hills, TX: Chris Young b Biohazard, Jimbo Starr b Mike Anthony, Cajun Kid b Zane Morris, Gary Tool b Stryker, Hotstuff Hernandez b Al Jackson (thanks to Rob Moore)
  933.  
  934. It appears from the PPV that they'll do an angle where Joel Gertner will bring the Dudleys in for revenge against Simon Diamond & Swinger for the 12/15 Queens show.
  935.  
  936. ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY
  937.  
  938. 1951 - Mitsuo Kwak was born in South Korea. He later migrated to Japan and was a top amateur wrestler in the early 1970s, competing in both Japan and the United States at the national level under the name Mitsuo Yoshida. He joined New Japan Pro Wrestling after representing his country in the 1972 Olympics in Munich and changed his ring name to Riki Choshu. His feud with Tatsumi Fujinami in 1982-84 changed the business from a Japan vs. foreigner program as the usual main event to a promotion where foreigners weren't as important and Japanese vs. Japanese was the main event. Later he became booker for New Japan and had a several year run where he turned the company into the hottest promotion in the world, particularly in the mid-90s. He remains booker today, although the company is very stale. Without question, Choshu, having booked more shows that have drawn in excess of 50,000 fans probably than every other booker in wrestling history combined, plus being one of the five biggest stars in the history of Japanese wrestling (along with Rikidozan, Antonio Inoki, Giant Baba and Jumbo Tsuruta), is one of the most influential men in pro wrestling history.
  939.  
  940. 1970 - Gene Kiniski ends Giant Baba's second reign, this one having lasted two-and-a-half years, as NWA International heavyweight champion, winning two of three falls in Osaka, Japan.
  941.  
  942. 1983 - In furthering the destruction of the credibility of the Georgia Championship Wrestling office, leading to the company's sale to Vince McMahon just a few months later, Tommy Rich pinned Ted DiBiase to apparently win the NWA National heavyweight title in Cleveland. On TV a few days later, without it being switched back on the tour, DiBiase was still champion and the match was never acknowledged.
  943.  
  944. 1991 - The WWF experimented, coming off the Survivor Series the previous week shooting a big angle where Undertaker beat Hulk Hogan to win the WWF title, with a show called "Tuesday in Texas" as a PPV one week after a previous PPV. The show drew a sellout 8,000 fans to the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio and about a 1.1 percent buy rate for the 90-minute long mini-PPV, a figure considered poor at the time as no WWF show had ever drawn such a low number. Clearly the experiment wasn't considered a success, as WWF has never attempted another PPV with just one week notice to the fans or one week after a PPV show. There were complaints among cable viewers that had purchased Survivor Series, believing they had paid to see a show that was simply hype for a second show. Hogan pinned Undertaker to apparently regain the title, by throwing dust from Undertaker's turn into his eyes and schoolboyed him for the win. Jack Tunney, who was knocked down by Ric Flair, later vacated the title which set up the 1992 Royal Rumble for the vacated title.
  945.  
  946. 1993 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi won the All Japan Real World Tag League tournament and vacant tag team title beating Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue in the finals at Budokan Hall.
  947.  
  948. 1994 - Randy Savage makes his WCW debut at a TV taping in Birmingham, AL for WCW Saturday Night
  949.  
  950. 1999 - Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama defeated Stan Hansen & Akira Taue to win the last great All Japan Real World Tag League tournament at Budokan Hall.
  951.  
  952. ~~~~
  953.  
  954. ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY
  955.  
  956. 1964 - The old World Wrestling Association world heavyweight title, recognized mainly in California and Japan by JWA, was split into two separate titles when Toyonobori, the heir apparent to Rikidozan as the top star in Japan before the ascension of Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki, defeated The Destroyer at the Tokyo Gymnasium to win the title. Although Toyonobori is generally recognized as a failure during his short run on top, this match was clearly his greatest success as they drew a 50.1 rating for the one hour television show and it is still one of the 30 highest rated television shows in the history of the country of Japan. Destroyer ended up returning to California and still being billed as champion. In Japan, for their own storylines, since the Japanese media covered the Olympic Auditorium, Kiel Auditorium and Madison Square Garden matches in that era like they were a religious experience, Destroyer was billed in Japan as United States champion. In late 1965, the title was unified when Toyonobori went to Los Angeles and lost his version of the belt to the current American version of the champion, Luke Graham.
  957.  
  958. 1992 - In the final match of the year for All Japan, there were many stories. In hindsight, the biggest was a preliminary comedy match where Andre the Giant & Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura beat Haruka Eigen & Motoshi Okuma & Masa Fuchi. It was Andre's last pro wrestling match, as he died the next February. It was also Okuma's last pro wrestling match, as he died a few weeks later. In the main event, Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada defeated Terry Gordy & Steve Williams in the finals to win the vacant Double Tag team titles as well as the annual Real World Tag League tournament. The tag titles had been vacated just before the tour began by Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue, when Tsuruta's liver problems made it so he would have to take more time off, and basically ended his career as a serious headliner.
  959.  
  960. 1995 - Legendary midget wrestler Little Beaver died at his home in Montreal at the age of 59. In the main event of a show billed as "Monday Night Sensations" at Tokyo Sumo Hall, Manami Toyota defeated Dynamite Kansai to win the WWWA title in 22:39 of a fantastic match. Toyota joined at that point only a select group of women in history to hold the famous red belt on two occasions.
  961.  
  962. ~~~~~~~~
  963.  
  964. 12/5/2000 2:34:00 PM
  965. Dec 5 In Wrestling History
  966.  
  967. by Dave Meltzer
  968.  
  969. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY
  970.  
  971. 1938 - In a battle of two of the greatest light heavyweight wrestlers in history, Danny McShain, the supreme worker and bleeder of his time, defeated Leroy McGuirk, the supreme lighter weight shooter to win the World light heavyweight title in Hollywood, CA. McShain held the title, which eventually morphed into the current NWA World light heavyweight title in Mexico, a record 11 times. McGuirk gave up the light heavyweight belt to move to the junior heavyweight division, winning the title the next year and holding it until being blinded in an auto accident, never dropping the title after an amazing 11-year run as champion.
  972.  
  973. 1958 - Dynamite Kid, who along with Satoru Sayama in the early 1980s put lighter weight wrestling on the map in Japan, and tapes of their matches led to revolutionizing the in-ring product, was born in England. Tom Billington, who appeared Saturday at the UK Rebellion PPV backstage, has been confined to a wheelchair for the past four years due to the brutal punishment he largely inflicted on himself as being the premier insane bump taker of his time.
  974.  
  975. 1966 - In the first pro wrestling sellout ever at Budokan Hall, Giant Baba retained the International heavyweight title beating Fritz Von Erich. This match was humorous for a behind-the-scenes story. Von Erich was the top heel in Japan of this time period because they put the iron claw over so strong. When Von Erich got the hold on Baba, Baba went to blade his forehead, but instead cut Fritz' finger, and it was bleeding all over the place. The reporters quickly made up the story about how Fritz went into the match with a terribly painful hangnail.
  976.  
  977. 1993 - In the biggest show ever in the history of the UWFI promotion and a battle of recognized World champions, Nobuhiko Takada defeated Vader (WCW world champion at the time) in 14:23 with an armbar to retain the title at Tokyo Jingu Stadium before a sellout 46,168 fans paying $2.5 million. The WCW promotion was furious at Vader for losing cleanly in another promotion while holding its world title. In the top two matches on the undercard, Russian former national champion amateurs Salman Hashimikov & Vladimir Berkovich beat American top amateur wrestlers Dan Severn & Gary Albright, while Kiyoshi Tamura was put over Olympic silver medalist Dennis Koslowski.
  978.  
  979. 1997 - Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue captured their second consecutive Real World Tag League tournament victory at Tokyo Budokan Hall beating Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama in 30:52 before 15,500 fans at Budokan Hall.
  980.  
  981. 1998 - Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama captured the Real World Tag League tournament over Stan Hansen & Vader when Kobashi pinned Vader after a desperation lariat before a sellout 16,300 fans at Budokan Hall. Hansen & Vader had gone undefeated in the round-robin aspect of the tournament in the first time two of the biggest foreign stars of all-time in Japan had formed a team with Vader joining up with All Japan.
  982.  
  983. ~~~~~~~~~
  984.  
  985. 12/6/2000 4:33:00 PM
  986. Today in Wrestling History
  987.  
  988. by Dave Meltzer
  989.  
  990. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  991.  
  992. TODAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY
  993.  
  994. 1934 - One of the sport's Hall of Famers, Nick Bockwinkel, a second generation wrestler, was born. The son of Warren Bockwinkel, a contemporary of Lou Thesz and Freddie Blassie out of the 1930s St. Louis wrestling era, son Nick was a huge star in wrestling in a career that spanned 33 years as an active competitor and he was still a main eventer when he stepped out of the ring for good in 1987 to take a job as a road agent for the WWF. Bockwinkel is most noted for his work in the AWA. His tag team with Ray Stevens in the early 70s is acknowledged as the best tag team in the world during that period and one of the great teams of all-time. He later held the AWA heavyweight title on four occasions between 1975 and 1987. Well into his 50s, he had a classic 60 minute draw that aired on ESPN on New Years Eve of 1986 with Curt Hennig. He also carried Andre the Giant to a 60:00 draw in a match said to be entertaining, which tells you the calibre of worker he was. Great technique in the ring and a strong but low-key heel interview. Bockwinkel is currently living in Las Vegas and is going to be among the wrestlers honored on 12/30 at a Minnesota Timberwolves game.
  995.  
  996. 1953 - In one of the most important matches in Japanese wrestling history, which actually took place in the United States, Lou Thesz retained the NWA world heavyweight title beating Rikidozan in 43:00 at the Honolulu Civic Auditorium. It was this famous win over Rikidozan that led to several rematches in Japan many years later, one of which drew a 72.0 rating, which no doubt meant it was the biggest mainstream pro wrestling match in Japanese history.
  997.  
  998. 1971 - Karl Gotch & Rene Goulet won the WWWF tag team titles from Luke Graham & Tarzan Tyler in Madison Square Garden. Gotch, considered the master submission wrestler of his era, was already a legend in Japan, but was an unknown in the Northeast even though he was well into his 40s.
  999.  
  1000. 1973 - Mitsuo Yoshida (Riki Choshu) signs a contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling to start his pro wrestling career
  1001.  
  1002. 1974 - The father of The Rock, Rocky Johnson, wins the Georgia heavyweight title from Buddy Colt in Atlanta. Johnson was actually the first African American at this point to ever hold the Georgia heavyweight title.
  1003.  
  1004. 1985 - After the folding of the first version of the UWF in Japan with its final show two months earlier, Akira Maeda, Nobuhiko Takada, Osamu Kido, Kazuo Yamazaki and Yoshiaki Fujiwara signed to return to New Japan Pro Wrestling. This set up some changes in the industry that are felt to this day. With major television exposure of their new shoot-based styles, it led to introduction of moves such as armbars, kneelocks, Fujiwara armbars, etc. as finishing maneuvers in pro wrestling. The next year for New Japan was momentous, because match-ups with Maeda in particular and his UWF crew against New Japan were huge at the box office, but the match everyone wanted to see, Maeda vs. Antonio Inoki, never took place because Maeda refused to do a job for Inoki. However, as the more technical wrestilng got more popular, TV ratings fell even though business was huge. It led to New Japan eventually losing its network prime time coverage and being moved to a Saturday afternoon time slot. That lessening of exposure, even though ticket sales were strong, led to wrestling losing its grip as a mainstream phenomenon in Japan. Maeda and company lasted nearly two years in New Japan before Maeda's shoot kick on Riki Choshu led to his being fired, which led to the formation of the second UWF, which was a cultural phenomenon that paved the way for Japanese wrestling to go in the direction that is has.
  1005.  
  1006. 1986 - Rick Rude & Manny Fernandez won the NWA tag team titles from the Rock & Roll Express at the Omni in Atlanta.
  1007.  
  1008. 1989 - Stan Hansen & Genichiro Tenryu defeated Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu at Budokan Hall to win the annual Real World Tag League tournament
  1009.  
  1010. 1991 - Dynamite Kid announced his retirement from pro wrestilng at the age of 33 due to ring injuries at the finals of the All Japan tag team tournament. Kid came back to wrestle some in England and even one last match in Japan, before the pounding caught up with him and he could no longer walk. In the tournament final before a sellout 15,900 fans, and thousands more watching as an experiment in several closed-circuit locations, Steve Williams & Terry Gordy defeated Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada in 25:24 when Gordy pinned Kawada after a power bomb.
  1011.  
  1012. 1996 - Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue defeated Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama to win the 20th Annual Real World Tag League tournament before 16,300 fans at Budokan Hall. Kawada & Taue had been finalists previously in 1993 and 1995, losing both times to Misawa & Kenta Kobashi. Finish saw Kawada pin Misawa in 31:37 after a power bomb. Arena Mexico held its year-end spectacular before 11,000 fans with a triangular hair vs. hair vs. mask match with Negro Casas, El Hijo del Santo and Dandy, ending with Santo and Dandy in a double bloodbath and Santo using his camel clutch submission, with Dandy losing his hair.
  1013.  
  1014. 1998 - While on a live broadcast of the Capital Carnage PPV in the United Kingdom, announcer Jim Ross suffered an attack of Bells Palsy, his second such attack, brought upon by getting the word while in England of the death of his mother. For many months it appeared that Ross' career in front of the camera was over and the WWF, under writer Vince Russo, created storylines to put Michael Cole in the spot as the lead announcer for Raw. Largely to Steve Austin wanting Ross to call his Wrestlemania main event match nearly four months later, Ross was in the booth for one match, and did so well, that even with the cosmetic problems of the two incidents of Bells Palsy, Vince McMahon made the call to put Ross back as the permanent host of Raw. Ross came back to win Announcer of the Year awards the next two years and was voted by his peers into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Hall of Fame in 1999. The show itself at the London Arena before a sellout 10,441 paying $412,147 was headlined by Austin winning a four-way over Rock, Kane and Undertaker.
  1015.  
  1016. ~~~~~
  1017.  
  1018. 12/7/2000 4:03:00 PM
  1019. Today in Wrestling History 12-7
  1020.  
  1021. by Dave Meltzer
  1022.  
  1023. ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY
  1024.  
  1025. I'd like to make mention of three invaluable sources for this daily feature. The two prime sources are "The Ultimate History of Pro Wrestling" by Karl E. Stern (www.angelfire.com/al/dragonking) and Royal Duncan & Gary Will's "Wrestling Title Histories," which is my mind is the single greatest reference book ever on pro wrestling and a must for every serious fans' collection (www.garywill.com.archeus). Another great resource is Jason Campbell's "Wrestling Supercards and Tournaments" (hometown.aol.com/wsandt/cards/index.html). For most of the stories from the past 20 years, the prime source are back issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
  1026.  
  1027. 1941 - The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Don't think this is a wrestling story? Actually, it's among the most important in history. Not only did it lead to America's participation in World War II, which most of the able-bodied men, which meant a majority of the athletes, were called in to serve, leading to weakened ranks within pro wrestling at the time, but it led to so many cultural stereotypes afterwards. The World War II period, with less athletes in pro wrestling by and large led to the popularizing of tag team wrestling, where men could tag in and out as they got tired since the active wrestlers were generally older. After the war, stemming directly from this incident, we went through some five decades of stereotyping Japanese pro wrestling as sneaky back-stabbers, who threw salt and were almost entirely heels. Because of a lack of true Japanese pro wrestlers in this country, numerous Hawaiians in the 50s through the 70s, and some later than that, were recruited to play Japanese roles and many were huge territorial draws and legends, such as Duke Keomuka, Kinji Shibuya, Toru Tanaka, Mr. Fuji, Mr. Moto and so many others.
  1028.  
  1029. 1963 - Rikidozan, who was named Wrestler of the Century by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter because nobody was ever as big a star within their culture, had his final match in Hamamatsu, Japan on JWA's final card of the year. Rikidozan teamed with The Great Togo & Michiaki Yoshimura to win over The Destroyer & Buddy Austin & Ilio DiPaolo. He was dead eight days later at the age of 39, which we'll talk more about in the coming week.
  1030.  
  1031. 1971 - Dory & Terry Funk won the NWA International tag team titles from Giant Baba & Antonio Inoki at the Nakajima Sports Center in Sapporo. The Baba & Inoki team, which had main evented nightly for the past four years and are still the most legendary tag team in Japanese history, had their next to last match on this night (they teamed one last time in 1979 for an interpromotional show). With the JWA falling apart, Inoki was fired after a power play attempt, which led to a few months later his forming New Japan Pro Wrestling, which for many years was the biggest wrestling promotion in the world.
  1032.  
  1033. 1976 - Chief Jay Strongbow & Billy White Wolf (who would go on to more fame under the name Sheik (or General) Adnon Kaissey, won the WWWF tag team titles in a three-team tournament in Philadelphia over The Masked Executioners (John "Studd" Minton & Walter "Killer" Kowalski) and Nikolai Volkoff & Tor Kamata.
  1034.  
  1035. 1988 - In the main event of a TV special called "Seasons Beatings" from Chattanooga, TN, which drew a 4.5 rating, what was billed as the two greatest singles wrestlers in the world at the time, Ric Flair & Barry Windham, defeated what was generally considered the best tag team in the world at the time, the Midnight Express of Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane in 17:41
  1036.  
  1037. 1989 - William Calhoun, one of pro wrestling's biggest attractions of the 60s and early 70s as the supposed 601-pound Haystacks Calhoun, passed away from complications of diabetes at the age of 55. Calhoun, who probably legitimately weighed closer to 450 to 500 pounds, toured territory to territory before the days of Andre the Giant as a popular gimmick performer, losing rarely. Late in his career he settled into the WWF and held the tag team title with Tony Garea.
  1038.  
  1039. 1994 - Pro wrestler Yoji Anjyo, attempting to make a name for himself, of the worked shoot promotion UWFI, went into the Los Angeles jiujitsu studio owned by the legendary Rickson Gracie. Anjyo, truly believing that his 35-pound weight advantage and submission knowledge in the Japanese dojo would allow him to become a legend since the Gracies were becoming mythical from Royce and Rickson's tournament wins in Japan and the United States in Vale Tudo and UFC competition. He was dead wrong. Before very few spectators and one video camera, Gracie mounted Anjyo and beat the hell out of him, leaving his face bloodied and swollen. This was the beginning of the end of the UWFI promotion, which at the time was arguably the hottest wrestling company in the world with Nobuhiko Takada drawing sellouts every time out. This would have been a great build for a Takada-Gracie match, but when Takada wouldn't publicly challenge Gracie, people started questioning if he was real, particularly as UFC tapes showed what was real and UWFI didn't look like UFC. UWFI within months collapsed financially because of this, leading to the New Japan interpromotional angle, which saved them for a few months, but ultimately killed them. Ironically, three years later, because of the legend from this incident, Takada did get into the ring with Gracie at the Tokyo Dome before 37,000 fans, with Gracie winning easily, and Gracie won a second rematch one year later, although the second match was a little more competitive.
  1040.  
  1041. 1996 - The second Ultimate Ultimate PPV is held in Birmingham, AL, won by Don Frye via choke over Tank Abbott in about one minute. Virtually every participant in this show ended up in pro wrestling, including Ken Shamrock (WWF), Brian Johnston, (New Japan), Abbott (WCW), Frye (New Japan), Kimo (New Japan) and Paul Varelans (RINGS, Kingdom, ECW). The only one who didn't was possibly the most marketable of the bunch, Gary Goodridge, and Cal Worsham. Shamrock, in his last UFC match ever, defeated Johnston in the first round, but injured his hand and couldn't continue into the second round where he would have faced Abbott.. . . Raven also defeated Sandman at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia to win the ECW heavyweight title
  1042.  
  1043. 1997 - Ken Shamrock main evented his first pro wrestling PPV event against Shawn Michaels in the D-Generation X PPV, the WWF's first card since the legendary Survivor Series match one month earlier. For trivia note, this show in Springfield, MA, was supposed to be the site where Bret Hart would drop the WWF title to Shawn Michaels as part of a four-way (with Shamrock and Undertaker as the other two) before the double-cross. The show drew a sellout 6,358 fans and $112,864 and a poor 0.44 buy rate, barely half of the show the previous month showing short-term Survivor Series bump wasn't what legend tells you it was, even if long-term it did turn the company around after McMahon went heel and Austin caught fire. Shamrock beat Michaels via DQ in a *** in 18:29 when HHH and Chyna interfered. The semifinal saw Steve Austin pin Rocky Maivia to retain the IC title in 5:32 in Austin's first match back after suffering what at the time was considered a career threatening injury at the hands of Owen Hart's tombstone piledriver in August. The show wasn't well received overall, garnering 73.3% thumbs down, with heavy criticism at the Sgt. Slaughter vs. HHH boot camp match and the Marc Mero vs. Butterbean worked Tough Man match. Most considered the best match as the opener, where Taka Michinoku became the first WWF light heavyweight champ recognized in the United States since the days of the Gran Hamada-Perro Aguayo feud, beating Brian Christopher.
  1044.  
  1045. ~~~~~~~~~~
  1046.  
  1047. 12/8/2000 4:07:00 PM
  1048. This Day in Wrestling History 12-8
  1049.  
  1050. by Dave Meltzer
  1051.  
  1052. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1053.  
  1054. ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY
  1055.  
  1056. 1963 - In one of wrestling's great ironies, on the same day that the biggest star in the history of Japanese wrestling, Rikidozan, was stabbed gangland style while at a night club, the current wrestler whose in-ring style of hard punches and kicks most resembles him, Toshiaki Kawada, was born. Rikidozan died one week later.
  1057.  
  1058. 1969 - Victor Rivera & Tony Marino won the WWWF International tag team titles in Madison Square Garden from Toru Tanaka & Mitsu Arakawa. The show, which drew 10,878 fans paying $42,234, was headlined by Ivan Koloff beating WWWF champion Bruno Sammartino in a match stopped because of blood, setting up a rematch at the next show.
  1059.  
  1060. 1980 - Pedro Morales wins the IC title from Ken Patera in Madison Square Garden in 18:51. The main event before a sellout of 20,011 fans saw Bruno Sammartino in one of his final MSG appearances before his first retirement win over Sgt. Slaughter via count out.
  1061.  
  1062. 1991 - KPTV, Ch. 12 in Portland, OR announced the cancellation of Portland Wrestling, a Saturday night institution on the station for 38 consecutive years. The final episode ran on December 28, 1991. The program, which had a history of strong ratings and a loyal cult following, fell victim to high production costs, which the station was paying for, and declining ratings. The ratings, as usual, were the main factor as well as the station not wanting to have its production facilities tied up every Saturday night. The third key reason was that Tom Peterson, the long-time sponsor of the show having filed for bankruptcy leaving the show without a sponsor. Shortly after this announcement, the oldest wrestling promotion in the world, Owen Promotions, which dated back to Don's father Herb Owen in the 1920s, closed down shop.
  1063.  
  1064. 1994 - Harlem Heat won the WCW tag team titles for the first time beating Marcus Bagwell & The Patriot (Del Wilkes) in Atlanta at Center Stage before 400 fans.
  1065.  
  1066. 1997 - Masahiro Chono & Keiji Muto defeat Shinya Hashimoto & Manabu Nakanishi to win the New Japan Super Grade Tag League tournament in Osaka before a sellout crowd of 6,500 at Furitsu Gym. Perhaps even more importantly, this was the night where the Vince Russo touch on Raw started being noticed. Marc Mero did an interview calling Sal Sincere a "jobber" and a "jibroni." It was said on the air that Sal Sincere was a bad marketing gimmick and his real name was Tom Brandi. Shawn Michaels mooning the live crowd and jumping up and down, with no clothes on with his hand covering his penis while smoking a cigar, Goldust "flashing" Vader and Sable wearing a skimpy swimsuit after taking off a potato sack. It was also Vince McMahon's first appearance as a heel stemming from the reaction to his interview a few weeks earlier where he gave his side of the Bret Hart controversy and was so poorly received. To get the heel character over, McMahon ordered Austin to give up the IC title belt or defend it against Rock. Austin refused (in real life backstage, Austin was asked to drop it in the ring, but refused to put Rock over, with the feeling that since he was going to challenge for the WWF belt and win it at Wrestlemania, it made no sense to do any jobs before that time and McMahon reluctantly agreed) and the belt was handed to Rock. During this segment, Austin accidentally fell into the ropes, knocking McMahon off the apron and he took his first pro wrestling bump. Nitro, from Buffalo, NY before a sellout of 16,848 fans, drew a 4.24 rating for a show headlined by DDP vs. Scott Hall (4.6 rating) while Raw did a 2.99 rating (3.7 main event for Rock vs. Austin match that never took place).
  1067.  
  1068. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1069.  
  1070. ~~~~~~~~
  1071.  
  1072. 12/9/2000 3:00:00 PM
  1073. This Day in Wrestling History 12-9; Observer info
  1074.  
  1075. by Dave Meltzer
  1076.  
  1077. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1078.  
  1079. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY
  1080.  
  1081. 1972 - One of the all-time legendary tag teams, Dick the Bruiser & The Crusher, captured the WWA tag team titles at the International Ampitheatre in Chicago from Blackjacks Lanza & Mulligan, managed by Bobby Heenan in a match with former heavyweight boxing champion "Jersey" Joe Walcott as the referee. With their five reigns and AWA tag team champions and six reigns as WWA tag team champions among others, it is believed that Bruiser & Crusher had more longevity as World tag team champions than perhaps any tag team in history.
  1082.  
  1083. 1974 - Jack Brisco wins two out of three falls from Giant Baba in Tokyo to regain the NWA world heavyweight title. Baba was the first Japanese wrestler ever to hold what was considered at the time the premier title belt in pro wrestling and marked the end of the very first "quickie" NWA title change.
  1084.  
  1085. 1988 - Tatsumi Fujinami briefly holds championships in three different organizations at the same time. The current IWGP world heavyweight champion and Pacific Northwest heavyweight champion, defeated Kerry Von Erich in Tokyo to win the World Class version of the title via count out. Fujinami gave the belt back to Von Erich later that evening.
  1086.  
  1087. 1991 - Superstar Billy Graham gave a three plus hour interview to the TV show "Inside Edition" regarding steroid use in pro wrestling. The segment, which aired in early January, set off one of the biggest media tidal waves ever as it pertained to the wrestling industry making steroids a hot buzzer topic. The WWF had just a few weeks earlier instituted its first steroid test of talent. Even though the wrestlers had been warned in July to get off steroids, nearly five months later, 50% of the wrestlers failed the test. Because the WWF couldn't suspend that many wrestlers without catastrophic results, the test was said to be simply a warning.
  1088.  
  1089. 1995 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi captured the Real World Tag League tournament for the third consecutive year beating Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue before a sellout 16,300 fans at Budokan Hall when Kobashi pinned Taue in 24:04 with a moonsault in what was reported as a great match. Misawa & Kobashi joined Dory & Terry Funk as the only three-time winners in tournament history. . . Sandman captured the ECW heavyweight title before a packed house of 900 fans at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia winning a three-way over champion Mikey Whipwreck and passing through "Superstar" Steve Austin.
  1090.  
  1091. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the most in-depth source for the major news stories in pro wrestling, is available from us at P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228. Subscriptions are $11 for four issues, $28 for 12, $54 for 24 and $90 for 40 for weekly issues of the longest-running newsletter in the industry dating back in 1982.
  1092.  
  1093. The tentative guest schedule for this week on Wrestling Observer Live is:
  1094. Monday - Fumi Saito, long-time Japanese and American wrestling reporter
  1095. Tuesday - Juventud Guerrera
  1096. Wednesday - Tom Zenk, voted by a wide margin as The Best Guest in the history of the show and he's very prepared to give a lot of thoughts on the current wrestling scene
  1097. Thursday - Randy Hales, promoter of Power Pro Wrestling in Memphis
  1098. You can join myself and Bryan Alvarez for the hottest wrestling talk show every Monday through Friday from 6-8 p.m. Eastern and 3-5 p.m. Pacific time on the eyada.com sports channel. You can listen to any of a number of shows with the biggest names in the wrestling industry right now at http://eyada.com
  1099.  
  1100. ~~~~~
  1101.  
  1102. 12/10/2000 4:48:00 PM
  1103. Today in Pro Wrestling History 12-10
  1104.  
  1105. by Dave Meltzer
  1106.  
  1107. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY
  1108.  
  1109. 1930 - Ed Don George, a member of the 1928 United States Olympic team (placing fourth), captured his first world heavyweight title over Gus Sonnenberg in Los Angeles. This was a very important change for historical reasons. Sonnenberg, a college football star who was innovative in pro wrestling at the time for using moves that actually don't work such as the flying football tackle, and became the sport's biggest drawing card, had been attacked a few weeks earlier on a busy street corner in front of tons of witnesses by a middleweight wrestler who actually could fight. The embarrassment of the leading promoters because newspapers around the country carried the story about the world heavyweight wrestling champion, and a popular draw, beating beaten up by a little guy on the street, caused a panic reaction as the promoters quickly put the belt on George, a great legit wrestler who it was thought would give the title credibility.
  1110.  
  1111. 1973 - Bruno Sammartino won the WWWF heavyweight title for a second time, beating interim champion Stan Stasiak, who had won the belt nine days earlier in Philadelphia from long-time champ Pedro Morales. The match took place before a sellout 22,000 fans in Madison Square Garden, with Sammartino winning after a scoop bodyslam in 12:14. In the other top matches on the show, Pedro Morales pinned Larry Hennig (Curt's father) in what had been advertised until days before the show as the main event on the card and the title match, and Los Angeles star John Tolos was brought in and went to a 20:00 draw with Victor Rivera.
  1112.  
  1113. 1975 - In one of the great matches of the era, Terry Funk pinned Jack Brisco with an inside cradle off the figure four leglock to win the NWA world heavyweight title at the Miami Beach Convention Hall before 5,000 fans. Although Terry was to win the title, in order to draw the sellout crowd, it was announced as Jack vs. Dory, which was a bigger money match, as the main event to sell the tickets (Dory was actually touring Japan for All Japan at the time) and the storyline was that Jack had planned for Dory, and was surprised when Terry, who wrestled a totally different style, showed up. This match was so classic that the NWA sent tapes of the match with Gordon Solie's commentary to all its promotions around the world, and because of it airing on so many shows, was likely the most widely viewed wrestling match of its time.
  1114.  
  1115. 1979 - In what became a title defended in many promotions around the world, Eddie Graham and New Japan Pro Wrestling together came up with the NWA International junior heavyweight title as a concession to New Japan. New Japan had joined the NWA years earlier after a bitter fight with the forces from All Japan and the Funks to keep them out. However, New Japan wasn't able to get the NWA world champion to appear because Baba had enough pull to sign an exclusive Japanese deal with whomever held the belt. This allowed New Japan to have an NWA title of its own, and for Florida to have its top junior heavyweights compete for a title since the NWA world junior heavyweight title by this time was controlled by Leroy McGuirk and had lost most of its prestige. In a match to determine the first champion, Steve Keirn pinned Chavo Guerrero at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles to set up the famous match in Japan two months later where Tatsumi Fujinami won the title from Keirn. The belt itself was most famous when held by Guerrero a year later, as he defended it regularly in several U.S. promotions (California, Texas and Florida) as well as in Japan and in Mexico. All Japan ended up with the belt when Guerrero left New Japan for All Japan, and it was All Japan's premier junior heavyweight title until being dropped in 1986, and held by such luminaries as Mitsuharu Misawa (as Tiger Mask) and Atsushi Onita.
  1116.  
  1117. 1980 - Antonio Inoki & Bob Backlund won the first annual Madison Square Garden Tag League tournament over Hulk Hogan & Stan Hansen at the Osaka Furitsu Gym when Inoki pinned Hogan in 17:35. Other teams in the first tournament were Andre the Giant & The Hangman (Neil Guay), veteran Japanese heels Tiger Jeet Singh & Umanosuke Ueda, Seiji Sakaguchi & Shozo Kobayashi, Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura, Willem Ruska & Allan Coage (Olympic judo medalist team), Riki Choshu & Kantaro Hoshino and Ox Baker & Johnny Powers.
  1118.  
  1119. 1982 - Hall of Famer Wild Bill Longson passed away at the age of 74 after being in poor health for several years after a stroke. Longson, who was named to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 2000, may have been the greatest drawing card in the storied history of St. Louis wrestling and is the man who invented and popularized the piledriver as a finishing move. In 1944, he headlined 39 shows in St. Louis alone that drew more than 390,000 fans live (for a comparison, WCW running the entire country this year didn't even draw that many fans and ECW has never even had one live show in its history that drew the number Longson, who wrestled nearly every week in the same city, averaged over the course of one year) and his 16 consecutive sellouts in that era remains a record that nobody has ever come close to. Longson, before turning pro, was a state amateur boxing and amateur wrestling champion in his native Utah in the same year, 1931, and went on to hold the old National Wrestling Association world heavyweight title three years, including a big money feud with Lou Thesz.
  1120.  
  1121. 1994 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi won the Real World Tag League tournament in a unique finish before a sellout 16,300 fans at Tokyo Budokan Hall. Going into the final night, Misawa & Kobashi had a 6-0-2 record and were facing Steve Williams & Johnny Ace, at 7-1-0, while Giant Baba & Stan Hansen (6-1-1) faced Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (7-0-1). Misawa pinned Ace in 25:05, which meant Kawada & Taue needed only a draw against Baba & Hansen to set up a final match, and with a win, Kawada & Taue would take the tournament. For the first time in the history of the tournament, a team not involved in the final match won the tournament when Hansen pinned Kawada in 26:30.
  1122.  
  1123. 1999 - Genichiro Tenryu pinned Keiji Muto to win the IWGP heavyweight title in 26:32 in New Japan's final match show of the century before a sellout 6,700 fans at Osaka Furitsu Gym in a classic match. With the title win Tenryu, a few months before his 50th birthday, became the second wrestler in history (Vader being the first) to hold both the All Japan Triple Crown and the IWGP heavyweight title, as well as being the oldest world heavyweight champion to defend his title in Japan. Tenryu broke the latter record a few months back when he won the Triple Crown tournament, which he currently holds.
  1124.  
  1125. ~~~~~~
  1126.  
  1127. 12/11/2000 3:49:00 AM
  1128. This Day in Wrestling History 12-11
  1129.  
  1130. by Dave Meltzer
  1131.  
  1132. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1133.  
  1134. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY
  1135.  
  1136. 1916 - In a match for the world heavyweight title, John Olin defeated Joe Stecher in Springfield, MA when Stecher was unable to continue due to what was reported as neuritis in his shoulder. Olin never claimed the title after winning, but months later was billed as world heavyweight champion based on the win, to set up a match where he dropped the title, ironically with the same finish, claiming to be unable to continue due to a shoulder injury, in a match against Ed "Strangler" Lewis in Chicago with legendary Frank Gotch as referee to give it world title credibility with the local fans.
  1137.  
  1138. 1958 - Mark Lewin & Don Curtis captured the WWWF United States tag team titles (predecessor to the current WWF tag titles) for the second time beating Jerry & Eddie Graham in Washington, DC.
  1139.  
  1140. 1965 - Adolfo Tapia, who went on to become one of Mexico's most charismatic wrestlers until his career derailed when he came to the United States and was stopped dead in his tracks, was born. Tapia is better known as La Parka.
  1141.  
  1142. 1980 - Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta won the annual World Tag League tournament defeating Dory & Terry Funk via count out in about 50:00 of one of their classic matches. The other teams in the tournament that year were Abdullah the Butcher & Tor Kamata, Nick Bockwinkel & Jim Brunzell, Ricky Steamboat & Dick Slater, Billy Robinson & Les Thornton and The Sheik & The Great Mephisto (Frankie Cain).
  1143.  
  1144. 1987 - Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu defeated Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka to win the annual World Tag League tournament before approximately 10,000 fans at Tokyo Budokan Hall. The show was noteworthy because it was Terry Funk's final show in All Japan Pro Wrestling, as he was suffering from a bad back injury suffered in Puerto Rico and was working in great pain the entire tour and was limited in what he could do. Giant Baba as well as many others felt after this tour that his career was over as far as being a serious main event wrestler. It was also the final tag team tournament that Brody was in, as he was murdered the next summer. The final night was highlighted more by the semifinal, as Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs. Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy went to a double count out, in the days before Baba turned the company around business-wise by going to the all clean finish format, thereby eliminating both teams from championship contention in a match that went more than 28:00. Also in the tournament were Abdullah the Butcher & TNT (Savio Vega), Baba & Hiroshi Wajima (a legendary sumo star who was a short-term gimmick attraction), Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa) & Shinichi Nakano, Great Kabuki & John "Earthquake" Tenta, Rusher Kimura & Goro Tsurumi, Tom Zenk & The Terminator (Marc Laurinaitis) and Mark & Chris Youngblood.
  1145.  
  1146. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1147.  
  1148. ~~~
  1149.  
  1150. 12/12/2000 5:43:00 PM
  1151. This Day in Wrestling History 12-12 part one
  1152.  
  1153. by Dave Meltzer
  1154.  
  1155. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY (PART ONE)
  1156.  
  1157. 1966 - Yoshihiro Asai was born in Nagoya, Japan. Asai trained in the New Japan dojo, but due to his size, he didn't make the grade. So he went to Mexico, like his hero Satoru Sayama, and started a career that made him one of the great workers in the history of the industry. Already capturing the UWA welterweight and middleweight titles, he returned to Japan in 1990 for a new promotion called Universal, which was the first all-Lucha Libre style promotion ever in Japan. Gran Hamada was scheduled to be the big star, since he had a name in Japan dating back nearly two decades, but the younger Asai, and his brand-new move, a quebrada outside the ring which is now known as the Asai moonsault, stole the show and became a big hit. While that promotion didn't make it, Asai became a big star in Japan, and even bigger when Antonio Pena gave him the gimmick Ultimo Dragon, as the last protege of Bruce Lee, to form a tag team in AAA with Octagon. He didn't last long in AAA either, but ended up in 1992 as the first "outsider" (wrestler from a promotion other than New Japan) to win a New Japan title when he was given the IWGP junior heavyweight title. From a title trivia note, at one point in time he held ten different national and world lighter weight titles simultaneously, including eight from the J Crown and the WCW cruiserweight belt. His career was cut short by what was supposed to be a routine elbow operation, botched by his WCW surgeon, and his hand never regained feeling. He now trains wrestlers and runs the Toryumon promotion in Japan and Mexico, a group that has spawned some of the best new in-ring talent in the world and puts on some of the most entertaining house shows seen anywhere. Another Japanese wrestler, Kensuke Shinzaki, known as both Hakushi and Jinsei Shinzaki, was also born on this day.
  1158.  
  1159. 1974 - Oscar Gutierrez was born in San Diego, California. The nephew of Tijuana wrestling legend Rey Misterio, he started wrestling at the age of 14 and became famous as the greatest flier of his era as Rey Misterio Jr. Now 26, his career has struggled over the past two years due to knee problems and being mired by a booking committee and in a country where smaller wrestlers traditionally don't get pushed. However, when he first became a big name at the age of 17 in Mexico City, he was knocked by promoters there due to his size as well, with the idea that fans, even in Mexico, would never take him seriously and he would never be anything more than a flash in the pan, but ended up becoming one of the most popular wrestlers in the country.
  1160.  
  1161. 1976 - In one of only a handful of true shoots that martial arts legend Antonio Inoki would actually be in, he broke the arm of Akrum Palehewan in a match in Pakistan. The match turned into a shoot, with Inoki, who at the time was in far better condition, maneuvered into a classic armbar. Palehewan didn't submit until his arm was broken. It was also the scariest moment of Inoki's life, even more than being in a shoot match with Muhammad Ali, beating a local legend in front of a stadium filled with his supporters, as legend had it guns were being drawn on him when the match ended. When Inoki did his classic wave after the match, the Pakistani crowd believed he was thanking Allah for his win and accepted it as good sportsmanship, even though Inoki himself had no idea that was what he was doing. Hey, it makes a great story, doesn't it?
  1162.  
  1163. 1979 - In one of the biggest shows when it came to world wide talent ever in Madison Square Garden, both Bob Backlund, Harley Race and Antonio Inoki all retained their respective versions of the world heavyweight title before a sellout of 20,225 fans. There was a major political power play attempted before this match to Antonio Inoki and Hisashi Shinma, who had arranged for this card to be televised back to Japan and after doing the title change angle with Bob Backlund in Japan, tried to maneuver Vince McMahon Sr. into changing his advertised main event to Backlund vs. Inoki so it would appear that Inoki main evented a sold out Garden to the fans in Japan. In the match where Backlund regained the title from Inoki a few days earlier due to interference from Tiger Jeet Singh, Hisashi Shinma, who was the figurehead WWF President (and long-time business manager of Inoki), declared the title vacant pending a rematch, but gave the belt to Backlund to leave the country. McMahon Sr. wouldn't change the main event, but since it aired in Japan, when the match began, ring announcer Howard Finkel held the belt in his hands, Backlund didn't wear it to the ring, nor was he announced in the building as champion. In Japan it was billed that the title was vacant but that Inoki wasn't put in the match to determine the new champ, which was Backlund against Bobby Duncum, which Backlund won. For WWWF fans in the U.S., they knew none of that back story and just figured Backlund was defending the title, which is how it was always played up on television, in their Texas death match rematch of a double blood stoppage match the previous month. Race retained the NWA title beating Dusty Rhodes in 13:21 while Inoki retained the NWF title beating Great Hossein Arab (Iron Sheik) in 14:59, Tatsumi Fujinami keep the WWWF jr. heavyweight title beating Johnny Rivera (later one of the Invaders), Ivan Putski & Tito Santana retained the WWWF tag team titles over Victor Rivera & Swede Hanson and Seiji Sakaguchi & Riki Choshu retained the NWF North American tag team titles beating Jo Jo Andrews & Badnews Allan Coage. Perhaps as important as any of those matches was a prelim where a young powerhouse made his MSG debut by the name of Hulk Hogan, a green heel managed by Fred Blassie, defeating Ted DiBiase, who was a major star but on his way out of the promotion. Another wrestler named Dynamite Kid was scheduled to make his MSG debut and in the dressing room, but because the show was running long and New York had an 11 p.m. curfew, both his match, and the IC title match (Pat Patterson defending against Domenic DeNucci) never took place.
  1164.  
  1165. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1166.  
  1167. 12/12/2000 11:23:00 PM
  1168. This day in Wrestling history 12-12 part two
  1169.  
  1170. by Dave Meltzer
  1171.  
  1172. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1173.  
  1174. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY (PART TWO)
  1175.  
  1176. 1981 - Stan Hansen made his first appearance ever in the All Japan ring in one of the most famous matches in the history of the promotion. Hansen, who was arguably the most popular foreign wrestler ever in Japan, who is having his retirement ceremony next month at the Tokyo Dome, was Antonio Inoki's leading rival in New Japan when, in the middle of a wrestling war, All Japan bookers Dory & Terry Funk made a secret agreement with him to jump for at the time an unheard of price of $8,000 per week. That figure itself shows just how much things have change, because except for Andre the Giant and a world champion in a great week, nobody was ever making that kind of money in those days. Hansen had just wrestled the previous day for New Japan in their final show of the year in Osaka, finishing the tag team tournament for that company as Dick Murdoch's partner. He showed up coming to the ring with Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka as they wrestled The Funks in Tokyo in the finals of the Real World Tag League tournament, and late in what is always on lists as the best match in All Japan history, Hansen gave Terry a lariat outside the ring, Brody pinned Dory inside the ring, and Giant Baba and Jumbo Tsuruta hit the ring and brawled with Hansen starting a series of new feuds that lasted the rest of the decade.
  1177.  
  1178. 1982 - Dory & Terry Funk won the All Japan Real World Tag League tournament beating Brody & Hansen in the finals in Tokyo, winning over teams such as Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta, Harley Race & Dick Slater, Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara, Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood and Super Destroyer & Umanosuke Ueda.
  1179.  
  1180. 1983 - Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen won the All Japan Real World Tag League tournament over Dory Funk & Giant Baba in the finals. Other teams involved were Tsuruta & Tenryu, Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras, Tiger Jeet Singh & Ueda, Ron Fuller & Barry Windham, Ashura Hara & Mighty Inoue and Goro Tsurumi & The Mongolian (now Cousin Luke)
  1181.  
  1182. 1984 - Tsuruta & Tenryu won the Tag Team tournament via DQ in the finals over Brody & Hansen at Yokohama Bunka Gym on a tour in which nearly every show on the tour was sold out.
  1183.  
  1184. 1985 - Both All Japan and New Japan scheduled the tag team tournament finals on the same night. The New Japan finals, to determine the first ever IWGP world tag team champions, were scheduled as Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka, the top team thus far in the tournament, to lose to Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi. However, while on the train to Osaka for the finals, Brody & Snuka suddenly got off the train. Brody had heat for a real-life in-ring brawl with Sakaguchi, the booker at the time, the previous night and tensions were high. Snuka left showing loyalty to Brody. New Japan, faced with a catastrophe, put Inoki & Sakaguchi vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura as the makeshift final and did the shocking at the time finish of Fujinami pinning Inoki, who never did jobs in those days, so fans had a huge story to counteract the story of Brody no-showing the finals. On the All Japan side, Hansen & Ted DiBiase beat Tsuruta & Tenryu to win the tournament
  1185.  
  1186. 1986 - Tsuruta & Tenryu won the tag team tournament finals in Budokan Hall over Hansen & DiBiase, in a loaded tournament that included The Funks, Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu, Terry Gordy & Killer Khan, Baba & Tiger Mask (Misawa), Rick Martel & Tom Zenk, Rusher Kimura & Goro Tsurumi and Super Strong Machine & Ashura Hara.
  1187.  
  1188. 1991 - Before a crowd of about 40,000 fans, of which about 30,000 were paid and a gate of $1.5 million, Hulk Hogan pinned Tenryu in a Tokyo Dome main event for the Super World Sports promotion more famous for the back story. Although all logic, being it was in his country and he needed the win because his company was struggling, pointed to a Tenryu win, it didn't happen. Hogan arrived late for the show because he took the last plane out of Florida because his father was ill. Great Kabuki, one of the bookers, told the reporters before the show that everything was under control, that everything had been worked out with the WWF and that Tenryu was going to win, letting them know to tell the newspapers ahead of time about the big story to hold up evening deadlines since at that time Hogan doing a job for Tenryu was a big story. He also told the finish, because the show was going to run late and the match wouldn't end in time for some morning newspaper deadlines. There were more than 100 reporters at the show, and as these reporters were faxing and phoning in their "Dewey defeats Truman" story, on the television monitor watching from the Dome, Hogan pinned Tenryu after two clotheslines, causing a mass panic in the press room. Some interesting undercard matches included Masakatsu Funaki over Jerry Flynn in a UWF style match, looking totally out of place on a card with a lot of WWF talent, Ultimo Dragon pinned Jerry Estrada, Ted DiBiase pinned Kerry Von Erich, Naoki Sano pinned Rick Martel to win the newly created WWF junior heavyweight title (boy that one didn't last long) and the Road Warriors beat Earthquake & Typhoon.
  1189.  
  1190. 1999 - WWF held its Armageddon PPV in Fort Lauderdale, FL before a sellout 15,749 fans, of which 13,981 paid $402, 413 headlined by HHH pinning Vince McMahon in the famous match that never ended, Big Show pinned Big Bossman to retain the WWF title (was that only one year ago) and The Rock & Sock Connection beat the New Age Outlaws and Chris Jericho beat Chyna to win the IC title.
  1191.  
  1192. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1193.  
  1194. ~~~~~~
  1195.  
  1196. 12/13/2000 3:36:00 PM
  1197. This day in Wrestling History 12-13
  1198.  
  1199. by Dave Meltzer
  1200.  
  1201. ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY
  1202.  
  1203. 1920 - Ed "Strangler" Lewis wins the world heavyweight championship from Joe Stecher in New York. Politically, this was the start of the Gold Dust Trio comprised of Lewis, Toots Mondt and Billy Sandow, who became the most powerful nationwide forces in wrestling perhaps until Vince McMahon Jr. in the 80s as pro wrestling was in a boom period in most places with Lewis as its top star, and they controlled what was considered the real world title. In Lou Thesz' book, he wrote that this match was a shoot, and he was the closest of anyone alive to Lewis, although most historians would dispute that. If it was a legitimate match, it would have likely been the last truly legitimate contest that a world title would change hands in until the famous Mildred Burke vs. June Byers match in 1954 in Atlanta.
  1204.  
  1205. 1952 - Sylvester Ritter, who went on to become one of the biggest stars in wrestling after being given the name Junkyard Dog in the 80s, was born in Wadesboro, NC. With JYD as his top attraction, Bill Watts took New Orleans, traditionally a dead area for pro wrestling, and turned it into one of the biggest money cities in the country. Ritter left Watts to work for Vince McMahon in one of the biggest raids of the time, and for a period of time, working with the likes of Terry Funk and Randy Savage as well as all the top heels in the WWF, JYD was probably second only to Hulk Hogan as the most popular wrestler in the company. Ritter was a unique person, as friends noted how caring and generous he could be, yet he let his own life and career get destroyed through drugs. Never a strong worker, JYD died penniless in an auto accident on June 2, 1998 coming back from his daughters' graduation.
  1206.  
  1207. 1971 - Antonio Inoki was officially fired by the JWA, the major promotion in Japan, after failing in his attempt to gain the promotional power in the company. Inoki formed New Japan Pro Wrestling in early 1972, which grew to where for many years it was the most successful wrestling organization in the world, and in many ways revolutionized the entire industry in the early 80s.
  1208.  
  1209. 1979 - Dory & Terry Funk won the third annual Real World Tag League tournament over Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta in the finals. Other teams involved were Abdullah the Butcher & The Sheik, Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras, Kintaro Oki & Tor Kamata, Mr. Wrestling (Tim Woods) & The Strangler and Wahoo McDaniel & Frankie Hill (better known in the WWWF as Chief Jules Strongbow).
  1210.  
  1211. 1988 - The AWA held its first and only PPV show in Chicago before a paid attendance of only 1,900 fans headlined by a unification match with AWA world champion Jerry Lawler beating World Class champion Kerry Von Erich in a very good match, ending with a blood stoppage. The AWA and World Class both had television on ESPN, and jointly promoted it on the air, and also worked with Jerry Jarrett's Memphis promotion. Most of the wrestlers involved in the show are still waiting for their paychecks, as the show didn't do well in PPV.
  1212.  
  1213. 1989 - Starrcade 89 took place at the Omni in Atlanta before 6,000 fans, which was 5,200 paid for $70,000. The show, featuring Iron Man singles and tag team tournaments, got a 76.3% thumbs up response in the Observer poll. The gate was a major disappointment because regular house shows that year at the Omni had drawn more than 10,000 fans. The Road Warriors won the tag team tournament over Doom (Ron "Faarooq" Simmons & Butch Reed), Rick & Scott Steiner and The SST (Sam "Tonga Kid" Fatu and brother Solofa "Rikishi" Fatu). Sting won the Iron Man tournament pinning Ric Flair in the finals, in a tournament that also included Lex Luger and Great Muta. Sting pinned Flair in a ****1/4 match in 15:54. The match was supposed to have a 15:00 time limit, but they didn't get it done in time.
  1214.  
  1215. 1992 - The WWF made an announcement that starting in a few weeks, the two hour Monday night taped Prime Time Wrestling show, which had been suffering from severely declining ratings, would be abandoned and in its place would be a one-hour live show called Monday Night Raw. Raw was an immediate hit, and the ratings picked up tremendously, although it took several years before the success of Raw led to a business turnaround for the company.
  1216.  
  1217. 1993 - Larry Cameron, 41, died of a heart attack following a match in Bremen, Germany against Tony St. Clair.
  1218.  
  1219. 1995 - Jushin Liger pinned Gedo to win the second Super J Cup before 11,500 fans at Tokyo Sumo Hall. With spectacular performances by the likes of Ultimo Dragon, Shinjiro Otani, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Rey Misterio Jr., Psicosis, El Samurai and Dos Caras, this is considered by many as one of the greatest pro wrestling shows in history and was voted best big show of the year in the annual Observer poll.
  1220.  
  1221. 1998 - In what was considered one of the worst PPV shows ever put on by the WWF, Mankind beat Rock in 13:32 to apparently win the WWF title, but Vince McMahon simply claimed that since Rock wasn't pinned or submitted (ref stoppage after Socko claw), that Rock was still the champion. In the main event, Steve Austin, who was suffering from an intestinal virus and hadn't eaten and tore his abdominal muscle early in the match, beat Undertaker, working on a broken ankle, in a buried alive match in 21:30. The show only got a 1.2% thumbs up in the Observer poll. The show drew 17,677, a sellout of 16,891 paid with a $416,032 Canadian gate at the GM Place in Vancouver, BC.
  1222.  
  1223. 1998 - In a joint FMW/ECW show before a sellout 2,150 fans at Korakuen Hall, Sabu & Rob Van Dam won the ECW tag team titles from the Dudleys.
  1224.  
  1225.  
  1226.  
  1227.  
  1228. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1229.  
  1230.  
  1231.  
  1232.  
  1233. ~~~~
  1234.  
  1235.  
  1236. 12/14/2000 9:24:00 PM
  1237. This Day in Wrestling HIstory 12-14
  1238.  
  1239. by Dave Meltzer
  1240.  
  1241. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1242.  
  1243. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY
  1244.  
  1245. 1953 - Verne Gagne defeated Argentina Rocca in 25:17 when Rocca supposedly was unable to continue after a dislocated knee before 11,651 fans paying $35,470 in Madison Square Garden.
  1246.  
  1247. 1963 - Verne Gagne captured the AWA world heavyweight title for a sixth time defeating The Crusher at the Minneapolis Auditorium.
  1248.  
  1249. 1964 - Bruno Sammartino pinned Gene Kiniski to retain the WWWF world heavyweight title to headline Madison Square Garden before 11,803 fans paying $35,726. This match was a big deal more than a year later, since the NWA picked Kiniski to replace Lou Thesz as its World champion. In the eyes of many promoters and some fans, because this was how people thought in those days, it established Sammartino's WWWF title, which originally for the first year or so wasn't taken seriously as a world title since it was just a break off of the NWA belt, as the big title in the business in the late 60s, since when the two champions feuded just before Kiniski was champ, Sammartino won the feud. In a battle of two of the heaviest men in the business, Haystacks Calhoun, billed at 601 pounds, defeated Gorilla Monsoon, billed at 400 pounds.
  1250.  
  1251. 1990 - EMLL ran its biggest show in months during one of its boom economic periods before a sellout of 18,000 fans at Arena Mexico. In one of the best matches of the year in Mexico, Dandy beat El Satanico via DQ in 27:00 in a hair vs. hair match. The main event was a triangular mask vs. mask match with Huracan Ramirez Jr., Octagon and Fuerza Guerrera, and obviously, Ramirez lost. Guerrera first beat Ramirez quickly in a so-so match. Guerrera, father of Juventud Guerrera, then beat Octagon in a good match, leaving Octagon vs. Ramirez with the masks at stake. After two falls, each of which went 30 seconds since the show was so long by this point, and the quick falls were heavily booed by the fans, they had a strong but quick third fall. The key spot was Ramirez going for a tope, but Octagon running out of the way, but in doing so, "accidentally" hit his head on the ringpost. Octagon ended up winning, and Ramirez was unmasked as Juan Servilla.
  1252.  
  1253. 1992 - In one of the strangest stories, the character Nailz (Kevin Wacholz) was fired by the WWF after an altercation with Vince McMahon. Wacholz, who had a reputation as a street fighter and was pushed as a headliner at the time, was meeting with McMahon about 4:30 p.m. before a television taping in Green Bay. A few WWF officials heard shouts from the locker room, apparently thinking it was a wrestler screaming loudly while doing a promo, but when they heard the phrase, "I want my f***ing money," they realized it wasn't. Apparently Wacholz was upset about receiving an $8,000 payoff for a prelim match on the SummerSlam show a few months earlier that drew more than 75,000 fans to Wembley Stadium. It sounded as if there was a punch or a thud, and the door to the room was opened with Wacholz on top of McMahon with his hands around McMahon's throat and McMahon helpless as the two were pulled apart. The story got even stranger as Wacholz went to a pay phone, and failed a police report claiming that McMahon sexually assaulted him. Wacholz claimed McMahon had earlier tried the same thing in Madison Square Garden. No charges were ever filed, and the general belief was the story was totally fabricated. Both sides wound up suing the other in court cases that went nowhere. Earl Hebner claimed he was able to see what happened through a slightly opened door and said, "He (Wacholz) launched across the room, grabbed him by the throat and threw him down." Sgt. Slaughter, Gorilla Monsoon, Dave Hebner and Arnold Skaaland all came in to pull Wacholz off McMahon. Hebner claimed to have seen that there was no sexual assault. The police came and a report was given by Wacholz.
  1254.  
  1255. 1998 - As the WCW booking team came to Tampa for Nitro, they heard about football coach Dan Reeves having a heart bypass operation. To be topical, they booked Ric Flair to suffer a worked heart attack on the show and Eric Bischoff tried to play it off with one of those infamous "working the boys" angles that killed his credibility as a company leader. For the night, Raw drew a 5.16 rating to Nitro's 4.23. The Flair heart attack quarter drew a tremendous 5.9 number, the highest of the night, but to show nobody believed the heart attack, the number immediately dropped to a 3.7 the next quarter as people turned to Raw rather than were curious about the condition of Flair.
  1256.  
  1257. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1258.  
  1259. ~~
  1260.  
  1261. 12/15/2000 4:46:00 PM
  1262. This Day in Wrestling History 12-15
  1263.  
  1264. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1265.  
  1266. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY
  1267.  
  1268. 1963 - Rikidozan, the most famous wrestler in the history of Japanese wrestling, passed away from stab wounds suffered in a knife attack one week earlier. He was 39. Rikidozan was considered the national hero, and a symbol of Japan's economic rival after the World War II destruction. To this day, his grave site is used for pro wrestling angles as almost a religious shrine, and on New Years Eve, a 12-hour marathon of matches that are still around via old tape will be airing as a PPV in Japan.
  1269.  
  1270. 1964 - In his first match ever in the United States, Antonio Inoki lost when challenging the original Prince Iaukea (Curtis Iaukea) for the Hawaiian heavyweight title in Honolulu
  1271.  
  1272. 1974 - In the biggest pro wrestling match ever held in Brazil, Antonio Inoki went to a draw with Andre the Giant at a soccer stadium in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Inoki was billed as Half Brazilian and Half Japanese, hence the Antonio first name. He actually lived in Brazil while in high school as his family left Japan, but was brought back after being a national high school shot put champion when Rikidozan heard about him and trained him to be groomed to be one of the wrestlers that would carry the business.
  1273.  
  1274. 1975 - Superstar Billy Graham made his Madison Square Garden debut, pinning Domenic DeNucci in just nine seconds. This led to the Graham-Bruno Sammartino feud which is now legendary. In the main event on the show which drew a sellout of 20,225 fans, Sammartino pinned long-time rival Ivan Koloff. Antonio Inoki also made his MSG debut on this show as New Japan had closed a deal with the WWWF to supply it with talent, pinning Frank Monte.
  1275.  
  1276. 1977 - In one of the most famous matches in Japanese history, Dory & Terry Funk won the first ever World Tag League tournament beating The Sheik & Abdullah the Butcher via DQ. The storyline was that Terry's arm was destroyed by pencil attacks, but he came back with his arm in a sling and led his team to a win, even if via DQ. This match was where the Funks were established almost forever as big-time babyfaces.
  1277.  
  1278. 1989 - In what held up for nearly a decade as the most famous I Quit match of all-time, Ric Flair defeated Terry Funk with a figure four leglock in Troy, NY in the main event of Clash of the Champions. It was, at the time, the single most watched wrestling match in the history of TBS.
  1279.  
  1280. 1995 - In a show to celebrate Stu Hart's 80th birthday, which actually took place several months earlier, Bret Hart pinned Davey Boy Smith to retain the WWF title and The Funk Brothers returned to wrestle Bruce Hart & Brian Pillman, with the former Bad Company winning via count out.
  1281.  
  1282. 1996 - WWF held "It's Time," a PPV show from West Palm Beach, FL drawing a sellout 5,708 fans, which was 4,581 paying $69,018 but doing a poor 0.35 buy rate with Sid Vicious surprisingly retaining the WWF title over Bret Hart in the main event in a *** match.
  1283.  
  1284. 1997 - Bret Hart makes his WCW debut on Nitro. Nitro drew a 4.11 rating to Raw's 2.71. Hart's debut went against a segment where Steve Austin tossed the IC title belt, held by Rock, into the ocean. It was the first time all season where an Austin segment saw the ratings decline from the previous quarter, as WCW won the quarter 4.3 to 2.5.
  1285. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1286.  
  1287. ~~~~~~
  1288.  
  1289. 12/17/2000 7:48:00 PM
  1290. This Day in Wrestling History 12-16
  1291.  
  1292. by Dave Meltzer
  1293.  
  1294. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1295.  
  1296. THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING FOR 12-16
  1297.  
  1298. 1917 - From a historian perspective, the highest regarded pro wrestler in history, Frank Gotch, passed away of uremic poisoning at the age of 39. While nobody knows for sure or knows better, Gotch's matches are regarded in most history books as legitimate. Certainly he put the sport of pro wrestling on the map in the United States as the biggest sports star of his era. His influence to this day is strong in that his matches with George Hackenschmidt are debated to this day, and Iowa, his home state and the state he was literally the father of wrestling in, remains the strongest state for High School and College wrestling. There have always been allegations that Gotch really died from VD.
  1299.  
  1300. 1949 - Just a few months into his pro career, Verne Gagne captures the Texas heavyweight title from Leo Newman at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston, TX.
  1301.  
  1302. 1963 - Edouard Carpentier is awarded the WWA world heavyweight title when champion Bearcat Wright left the promotion and missed the show in Indio, CA. Wright was scheduled to drop the title to Freddie Blassie, but refused to do a job and changed the finish in the ring to keep the title. The next night, he was booked against Gene LeBelle, who was not a main event wrestler, but was the company shooter. He knew what that meant, left the building, and Carpentier was named champion. . . In Madison Square Garden before 11,670 fans paying $34,878, Bruno Sammartino pinned Dr. Jerry Graham in the main event.
  1303.  
  1304. 1990 - Starrcade '90 was held before 7,200 fans paying $93,425 at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis headlined by Sting pinning The Black Scorpion, who was Ric Flair under a mask, in a steel cage match with Dick the Bruiser as referee. Match was easily the worst Flair-Sting match ever on a major show. Rick & Scott Steiner beat Great Muta & Masa Saito to win a one-night Pat O'Connor Cup memorial tournament which included Russians Victor Zangiev & Salman Hashimikov in their only U.S. appearance ever, and a Mexican team of Konnan & Rey Misterio. Lex Luger won the U.S. title from Stan Hansen,
  1305.  
  1306. 1994 - Royce Gracie defeats Dan Severn in the finals of the fourth UFC PPV event before a sellout crowd of 5,857 paying $140,000 in Tulsa. Severn, who had a 70-pound weight advantage, took Gracie down and kept him there for the entire match, until Gracie caught him in a triangle choke at 15:49. The show drew an amazing 0.9 percent buy rate and was considered the show that put Severn on the map as a pro wrestler for a few years. Al Snow was Severn's corner man in the match. Because the match went so long, and the show past the three hour mark, much of the PPV audience missed the finish, the first of numerous problems SEG would encounter. . . At the first night of the first King of Pancrase tournament, an unknown rookie in his first fight named Frank Juarez scored an upset first round decision over Bas Rutten. Juarez later became known as Frank Shamrock.
  1307.  
  1308. 1995 - Wahoo McDaniel has his final pro wrestling match in Clinton, SC at the age of 57. . . Severn defeated Paul Varelans, Tank Abbott and Oleg Taktarov to win the first ever Ultimate Ultimate tournament before a sellout 2,800 fans in Denver. UFC made national publicity for a week leading to the show because the Mayor of Denver got the show moved out of the main building, but a compromise was reached and they still held the show in the smaller building. The show, which went head-to-head with a Mike Tyson fight on free TV, drew an 0.6 buy rate live, but an 0.4 buy rate on the replay. It was the largest buy rate believed to be in history ever for a replay of a PPV event.
  1309.  
  1310. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1311.  
  1312. ~
  1313.  
  1314. 12/17/2000 7:24:00 PM
  1315. This Day in Wrestling History 12-17
  1316.  
  1317. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1318.  
  1319. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY 12-17
  1320.  
  1321. 1906 - Frank Gotch regains his American heavyweight title beating Fred Beel in Kansas City in the rematch of their strange match 16 days earlier in New Orleans where Gotch suffered the last defeat of his pro career.
  1322.  
  1323. 1978 - Ricky Steamboat pins Ric Flair at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto to win the United States title for a second time. Steamboat and Flair had one of pro wrestling's all-time most legendary series of matches, continuing until Steamboat's career ended after a back injury in 1994.
  1324.  
  1325. 1994 - Pancrase concluded a two-day tournament to crown the first King of Pancrase before a sellout of 11,500 at Tokyo Sumo Hall, with Wayne Shamrock (Ken Shamrock) coming out on top. At this point in time, Pancrase was totally marketed as real pro wrestling, as opposed to the term Mixed Martial Arts, which would be created a few years later, and drew totally based on wrestling fans. This would have to be a milestone as it was likely the first shoot tournament to crown a pro wrestling world heavyweight champion in history, and the first champion and championship, probably dating back to Frank Gotch days, that actually was regularly defended in non-predetermined contests. Over the two days, Shamrock beat Alex Cook, Maurice Smith, Masakatsu Funaki and Manabu Yamada. Shamrock's knee was blown out and the final saw him take Yamada down and control him on the ground for 30:00 in a boring match, winning via decision.
  1326.  
  1327. 1995 - Bret Hart pinned Davey Boy Smith to retain the WWF title in 21:09 of a ****1/2 match before 7,289 fans in Hershey, PA at the In Your House PPV which drew a poor 0.3 percent buy rate. The show drew a mixed reaction with 49% thumbs up as there was a fantastic main event and every match on the undercard was below average.
  1328.  
  1329. 1999 - Masato Tanaka pinned Mike Awesome to win the ECW heavyweight title at a TV taping in Nashville, TN
  1330.  
  1331. ~~~~~
  1332.  
  1333. This Day in Wrestling History 12-18
  1334.  
  1335. by Dave Meltzer
  1336.  
  1337. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1338.  
  1339. DECEMBER 18 - ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY
  1340.  
  1341. 1964 - One of the biggest drawing cards in the history of pro wrestling, Steve Austin, was born.
  1342.  
  1343. 1968 - After the Los Angeles promotion and the World Wrestling Association joined with the National Wrestling Alliance to recognize Gene Kiniski as the World heavyweight champion, greatly solidifying the NWA's power base as the leading organization in the world at the time The WWA world champ, Bobo Brazil, as part of the merger, wrestled Kiniski for the title at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, going to a one hour draw. Although the match was legendary because of what it entailed at the time, those who saw it live remember it as a dreadfully boring match.
  1344.  
  1345. 1970 - Toru Tanaka pinned Fritz Von Erich in Houston to win the old NWA American heavyweight champion.
  1346.  
  1347. 1972 - Mil Mascaras become the first masked wrestler in several decades to wrestle in Madison Square Garden. The New York State Athletic Commission had a ban on masked wrestlers, so when a masked wrestler would appear in the WWWF in those days, he would have to do a circular mask leaving his face exposed when working the Garden, such as the likes of The Masked Russians, who were revealed as being Hispanic with their faces exposed at MSG shows, as well as El Olympico and Black Demon. The Spoiler (Don Jardine), who worked with a mask in the rest of the territory, went without a mask at MSG and actually, without the mask, was Mascaras' opponent on this show. Mascaras refused to allow his face to be shown to protect the sanctity of his gimmick and after pleading his case before the commission, the rescinded the rule. Over the next eight years, Mascaras would prove to be one of the most popular wrestlers to appear at the Garden. Wrestlers had worked north of Albany with masks. Also on the show which drew a sellout of 22,096 fans, Pedro Morales pinned Ray Stevens in the main event while Victor Rivera & El Olympico beat Dory Funk Sr. & Terry Funk.
  1348.  
  1349. 1978 - The WWWF and NWA titles were co-headliners in Madison Square Garden, as Bob Backlund retained the WWWF title going to a double count out with Rock's grandfather, Chief Peter Maivia. Harley Race retained the NWA title pinning Tony Garea. Antonio Inoki was named as the World Martial Arts champion by the WWWF, and made his first title defense against a masked Texas Red (Red Bastien) while Tatsumi Fujinami retained the WWWF jr. heavyweight title pinning first-ever champion Jose Estrada.
  1350.  
  1351. 1983 - Universal champion Carlos Colon defeated NWA world heavyweight champion Ric Flair in a cage match in Bayamon, PR before nearly 30,000 fans
  1352.  
  1353. 1995 - Madusa Micelli, who had been wrestling until a few days earlier in the WWF as Alundra Blayze before her contract expired and wasn't renewed when the company made the decision to disband its womens division, cancelling a planned Blayze vs. Aja Kong match scheduled for the Royal Rumble. Blaze was let go while still holding the WWF womens title, showed up on Nitro and under orders of Eric Bischoff, threw the WWF belt in the garbage can. Nitro, headlined by Randy Savage defending the WCW title against The Giant, drew its all-time record rating with a 2.7. Raw, headlined by Yokozuna vs. Razor Ramon, drew a 2.3.
  1354.  
  1355.  
  1356. ~~~~
  1357.  
  1358. This Day in Wrestling History 12-19
  1359.  
  1360. by Dave Meltzer
  1361.  
  1362. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1363.  
  1364. ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY
  1365.  
  1366. 1968 - Billy Robinson pins Thunder Sugiyama to win a tournament in Japan to be crowned the first IWA World heavyweight champion. Robinson, who held the British Empire heavyweight title, debuted in Japan and it was his first time he was exposed internationally. This led to Robinson being brought into Stampede Wrestling, where he was a huge star, as well as when the IWA became affiliated with the AWA, it led to Robinson joining the AWA a few years later where he became one of the company's biggest stars of the 70s.
  1367.  
  1368. 1970 - Giant Baba pinned Gene Kiniski at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles to retain the International heavyweight championship.
  1369.  
  1370. 1972 - In a famous match in Japanese history, Giant Baba, in his home town of Niigata, beat The Destroyer, the only man to ever beat Rikidozan in Japan in a singles match. The stipulation was that if Destroyer, one of the most hated heels ever in Japan, lost the match, he would do an about face and become Baba's regular tag team partner. Baba & Destroyer became the headline tag team, along with Anton Geesink and Jumbo Tsuruta, in the developmental years of the All Japan promotion and Destroyer was so popular as the first true foreign main event babyface, that he became a TV sitcom star in Japan as well.
  1371.  
  1372. 1973 - Ken Mantell upsets Danny Hodge to win the NWA world junior heavyweight title at a time the title meant something. Mantell, whose real name was Ken Lusk and actually gained most of his fame in wrestling as booker in the 1983-1984 period when World Class Wrestling was on fire, was an interesting world champion. He had wrestled under names Ken Mantell and Clay Spencer in different territories, so as champion, he used both names, depending upon the territory he defended the belt in.
  1373.  
  1374. 1977 - Before a sellout crowd of 20,225 in Madison Square Garden, Superstar Billy Graham retained the WWWF title losing via a blood stoppage to Mil Mascaras. To show the drawing power of Graham and Mascaras, the semifinal on the show was Arnold Skaaland vs. Lou Albano and Bob Backlund vs. Mr. Fuji.
  1375.  
  1376. 1985 - Buddy Landel was fired by Dusty Rhodes. Landel was coming off drawing a record house that week in Raleigh against Ric Flair and held the National heavyweight title and was in line for the biggest push of his career. However, after a cocaine binge, he literally couldn't get out of bed the morning of an Atlanta TV taping where he was about to shoot the biggest angle of his career for the major program with Flair. When Rhodes couldn't get him out of bed, he came on TV at the old TBS studios holding the belt claiming to have beaten Landel in a fictitious match and Landel never reached that level of stardom again.
  1377.  
  1378. 1995 - A story in the Village Voice entitled "The Fixer," alleged that Marty Bergman, the secret husband of Laura Brevetti, the lead defense attorney in the trial of Vince McMahon during the summer of 1994 on steroid distribution charges, had been involving in fixing the trial that McMahon was acquitted in. It alleged that Bergman had planted false stories alleging wrong doings by government investigator Tony Valenti and NBC producer Len Tepper in 1993, as well as a story involving lead government attorney Sean O'Shea about dating a woman while investigating her father, which came out on the eve of the trial. Bergman also, according to the story, represented himself as a producer for "A Current Affair" and allegedly offered Emily Feinberg, McMahon's former secretary and the strongest witness against him, $350,000 in exchange for a tell-all interview about McMahon that he would broker and result in a Fox Network movie. One of the most telling parts of the trial was the amazing job Brevetti did in cross-examination of Feinberg, hurting her credibility when she had the most damaging evidence on McMahon. A year later it became obvious as to why, her secret husband was acting himself out as Feinberg's agent. Bergman allegedly had gained Feinberg's confidence in telling her that Fox wanted Sly Stallone to play McMahon in a movie that she would get $300,000 for her work in putting it together. Bergman also contacted other people believed to have knowledge on McMahon under the guise of a "60 Minutes" producer, a role his brother (Lowell Bergman, who was featured in a major award winning movie for his work in exposing the tobacco industry) actually held.
  1379.  
  1380. 1999 - Starrcade '99 took place at the MCI Center in Washington, DC headlined by Bret Hart vs. Bill Goldberg in the now famous match where Goldberg threw the kick that ended Hart's career. A crowd of 8,582 paid $362,550 for a show headlined by a flat finish where booker Vince Russo decided to reenact the famous Survivor Series finish, this time with Hart as the winner and Goldberg being screwed by ref Roddy Piper. The show drew an 0.32 buy rate, and clearly people weren't happy with the finish because WCW has never approached that level on PPV since. Chris Benoit won the vacant U.S. title in a **** ladder match with Jeff Jarrett. The show was overall poorly received, with just 24% thumbs ups.
  1381.  
  1382. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1383.  
  1384. ~~~~~
  1385.  
  1386. 12/23/2000 11:44:00 PM
  1387. This Day in Wrestling History 12-20 and 12-21
  1388.  
  1389. by Dave Meltzer
  1390.  
  1391. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1392.  
  1393. THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY UPDATES
  1394.  
  1395. DECEMBER 20
  1396.  
  1397. 1968 - The famous Masked Assassins, Jody Hamilton & Tom Renesto, captured the Southeastern version of the NWA world tag team titles from Ray Gunkel & Buddy Fuller (father of Ron & Robert) in Atlanta.
  1398.  
  1399. 1996 - In what seemed like nearly a death blow to ECW's attempts to become a major promotion, Request TV President High Pinero made the decision that the company would be breaking its contract with ECW for PPV starting early 1997 due to his confirming a series of events, most notably the incident involving New Jack and Erich Kulas, that he was unaware of. Earlier in the week, Viewers Choice made the decision against airing ECW on PPV due to uneasiness about the product. Less than a week later, Pinero, after receiving numerous e-mails on the subjects from ECW fans, reversed his decision and ECW began on PPV the next April. Viewers Choice followed suit shortly thereafter.
  1400.  
  1401. 1998 - The documentary "Wrestling with Shadows" debuted on U.S. television on A&E.; The movie, which garnered generally strong reviews, was based on the finish of the Survivor Series PPV one year earlier, which still remains the most famous finish of a pro wrestling match in modern times. The movie ended up winning a Gemini Award in Canada, equivalent to an Emmy, for Best Television Documentary.
  1402.  
  1403. 1999 - Bret Hart defeated Bill Goldberg to win the WCW title that Hart vacated earlier in the evening in the last attempt, short lived as it was, to revive the NWO, at Nitro at the Baltimore Arena before 8,915 fans, of which 4,589 were paid. The Monday night ratings at this point were Raw at 5.83 and Nitro at 3.20. . . Keiji Muto was named MVP of Japanese Wrestling with a 14-8 vote margin over Mitsuharu Misawa. There was major controversy because Vader, who kept All Japan from falling even farther due to staleness and injuries to top talent, was not even considered for the award. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama were named Tag team of the year and Kazushi Sakuraba, who won MVP this year, along with Naoya Ogawa won awards as Most Valuable Fighter.
  1404.  
  1405. DECEMBER 21
  1406.  
  1407. 1931 - Jim Londos retained the world heavyweight title pinning Ray Steele in 57:21 with Ernest Roeber as referee before 15,000 fans in Madison Square Garden during a period when Londos headlined MSG every other week and routinely drew crowds of 15,000.
  1408.  
  1409. 1973 - Ron Fuller defeated Cowboy Bill Watts to win the Georgia heavyweight championship in Atlanta during the height of the famous promotional war of Atlanta.
  1410.  
  1411. 1981 - In the biggest mainstream article of the era on pro wrestling, Sports Illustrated ran a 17-page back-of-the-issue story on Andre the Giant. The story was rife with folklore and exaggerations, and even listed his size at 7-foot-4 and claimed at 520 pounds that he didn't even have excess body fat. It also claimed that had he trained for the sport and taken the necessary steroids, he would have been the strongest powerlifter ever, breaking records in the squat and dead lift. While one could speculate forever what ifs with Andre's god given size what he could have done in other sports, the fact was, he never trained and in sports that require training and discipline, god given size alone isn't enough.
  1412.  
  1413. 1991 - Leon "Bull Power" White defeated Tatsumi Fujinami in Bremen, Germany to become the first CWA Intercontinental champion. The two had long been rivals already in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
  1414.  
  1415. 1996 - Union of Wrestling Force International (UWFI) in Japan announced that the company would be folding with its final shows over the next week. UWFI was a major force in pro wrestling, peaking on December 5, 1993 when it drew 46,148 fans to Jingu Stadium for the battle of UWFI world champion Nobuhiko Takada and WCW world champion Vader with Takada winning with an armbar submission in a classic match. The company likely would have folded one year earlier, except was kept alive by New Japan, ultimately to be destroyed, with the interpromotional feud, which led to huge Tokyo Dome gates.
  1416.  
  1417. 1997 - The UFC debuted in Japan with a crowd of more than 10,000 fans at the Yokohama Arena to see Randy Couture capture the heavyweight title from Maurice Smith via decision in a dull match. The undercard, historically, was far more notable for the UFC debuts of the two men who would dominate shootfighting over the next few years, Frank Shamrock and Kazushi Sakuraba. Shamrock became the UFC's first middleweight champion by submitting 1992 Olympic gold medalist Kevin Jackson in just 14 seconds. Sakuraba, at the time a pro wrestler with the Kingdom promotion, won a four-man tournament by tapping out a heavily favored Marcus Conan Silviera with an armbar in 3:45, despite giving away 50 pounds.
  1418.  
  1419. 1998 - The Wrestling Observer Newsletter released the almost entire transcript of the Bret Hart-Vince McMahon conversation discussing the finish of the Survivor Series match one year earlier, notable because in the conversation, McMahon never once even brought up the idea of Hart losing the match.
  1420.  
  1421. 1999 - In something the company and industry should have learned from about setting up stunts that mean nothing without careful planning, Bill Goldberg's career was threatened and Bret Hart's life was put in jeopardy in a stunt on a Thunder taping in Salisbury, MD. The close of the show was for Goldberg to chase Hart out of the building. Hart was to jump in a car and speed off, however, the parking lot was covered in ice, and Hart, suffering from the effects of a concussion, unbeknownst to himself at the time, lost control of the car and nearly crashed into a production truck before luckily gaining control. Goldberg wasn't nearly as lucky, as in the heat of battle, he decided to punch through a non-gimmicked limousine window that supposedly contained Vince Russo. When the first few blows didn't break the window (he was supposed to use a small hammer to break the window but didn't) his elbow did, resulting in a career threatening injury that kept him out of action for several months and his career never rebounded from the time off.
  1422.  
  1423. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1424.  
  1425. ~~
  1426.  
  1427. 12/22/2000 8:43:00 PM
  1428. This Day in Wrestling History 12-22
  1429.  
  1430. by Dave Meltzer
  1431.  
  1432. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1433.  
  1434. ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY
  1435.  
  1436. 1954 - Rikidozan defeated Masahiko Kimura at Tokyo Sumo Hall in a match which set the stage for what Japanese wrestling would be in a battle of a former sumo star against a world judo champion. The match was to create the first Japanese heavyweight champion and the two men agreed to wrestle to a draw to build up a rematch. Suddenly, in perhaps the most vicious beating in a pro wrestling ring, Rikidozan unleashed punches and kicks on his wide open opponent, who was not ready for any kind of an attack, and beat him into semiconsciousness, and with the double-cross in the ring, as often happens in wrestling, became almost a wrestling God in the process. Kimura was somewhat renowned as the best fighter in the world after making Helio Gracie (Royce and Rickson's father) submit in a match in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil three years earlier. The match was a lesson as to what happens even with one of the toughest men alive, if he gets bombarded with blows with his guard down.
  1437.  
  1438. 1969 - In a battle of world class amateur wrestlers, Masa Saito of Japan won his first U.S. based singles title, the Florida heavyweight, from Dale Lewis. Lewis wrestled in two Olympics (1956 and 1960) while Saito wrestled in the 1964 Olympics. Saito was given the belt because they were building Jack Brisco to be not only the top man in the territory, for eventually to be NWA world champion, and wanted his first title win in Florida to be against someone with the credibility of being an Olympic wrestler as well as being a foreign heel when there was still a good deal of Japanese hatred from World War II.
  1439.  
  1440. 1997 - Stevie Richards undergoes neck surgery to remove two vertebrae, and is said to be leaving pro wrestling for good.
  1441.  
  1442. 1999 - Sports Illustrated announced its 50 greatest athletes from all 50 states, a list which included many pro wrestlers, although only one specifically for his work as a pro wrestler, Frank Gotch, who was named No. 27 from Iowa. Other notables on the list included Danny Hodge (No. 26, Oklahoma), Verne Gagne (No. 24, Minnesota), Wayne Munn (No. 38, Minnesota), Paul Anderson (No. 36, Georgia), Russ Francis (No. 4, Hawaii) and Bronko Nagurski (No. 1, Minnesota)
  1443.  
  1444. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1445.  
  1446. ~~~~~
  1447.  
  1448. 12/23/2000 5:46:00 PM
  1449. This Day in Wrestling History 12-23
  1450.  
  1451. by Dave Meltzer
  1452.  
  1453. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1454.  
  1455. ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY
  1456.  
  1457. 1953 - Hall of Famer and current New Japan President Tatsumi Fujinami was born. Fujinami was one of the top wrestlers of the 1980s before his career nearly ended due to a back injury. He recovered enough to come back as a headline wrestler for several, and even got some nostalgia pushes after that point to championship level, but he was never anyone one would consider as the best wrestler in the business after the late 80s.
  1458.  
  1459. 1962 - Another New Japan superstar, Keiji Muto, was born. Muto was the company's best heavyweight wrestler of the 90s, headlining numerous Tokyo Dome shows and having several title reigns. With knees shot, his career is probably winding down, but he's still in the New Years Eve Osaka Dome main event. In 1989 with WCW, Muto was one of the hottest wrestlers in the profession, being one of the rare cases of a Japanese top wrestler who at one point was actually even hotter as a star in the United States. Despite Muto's success, no Japanese wrestler has received a serious push in the United States since with WWF or WCW.
  1460.  
  1461. 1975 - Rocky Johnson pinned King Curtis Iaukea in Tampa, FL to capture the Florida heavyweight championship. Which technically Canadian, since Johnson, father of the Rock, grew up in Halifax, he was the first African American with the win to ever capture the Florida title which actually was a pretty big promotional step at the time, even if timing wise, it was years past being overdue.
  1462.  
  1463. 1999 - Mike Awesome regained the ECW title from Masato Tanaka in a hot match in White Plains, NY as the two continued what was probably the best match quality feud over the ECW title in its history.
  1464.  
  1465. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1466.  
  1467. ~~
  1468.  
  1469. 12/24/2000 3:15:00 PM
  1470. This Day in Wrestling History 12-24
  1471.  
  1472. by Dave Meltzer
  1473.  
  1474. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY
  1475.  
  1476. Almost nothing happened. In the old territorial days, Christmas was one of the best drawing dates of the year, since people had received money as gifts and parents would buy their kids wrestling tickets as presents. But they would get the gifts Christmas morning and traditionally the week before Christmas did no business, so most companies just shut down, usually doing double shots on Christmas day to maximize the income and running loaded shows in other cities the rest of the week. The entire economics of wrestling are different, as is the psychology of ticket buying, and nights like Thanksgiving and Christmas, that used to do record business all over the country, don't even run major shows.
  1477.  
  1478. 1971 - The wrestler expected to become the top high flier in the sport, Oro, was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. He debuted at the age of 18, and while only 19 years old, he and his brother, who wrestled as Plata, captured the Mexican tag team titles in Acapulco from Tony Arce & Vulcano, but only held them for two weeks, dropping them back in Mexico City. A few months later, he became a bit hit in Japan (April 1992) during his first four for the old Universal promotion. His reputation grew so quickly that the booked a trio of Mil Mascaras & Ultimo Dragon & Oro as a main event group, billing the team as the best high flier of the 70s, the 80s and the 90s on the same time. He captured the NWA world middleweight title from Mano Negra on May 23, 1993, but was dead a few months later, dying after a match on October 26, 1993 at Arena Coliseo in Mexico City. While he was compared with Rey Misterio Jr. as a high flier at that time, it was thought, because he was 5-10 and 195 pounds, that he had far more international potential. The death didn't come from missing on a high flying move, but he simply took a routine bump off a chop and had a brain aneurysm. His death literally aired on television, as he passed out in the first fall of a match and was stretchered out during the second fall of a match that continued because nobody realized how serious the situation was. He was pronounced dead in the hospital later that evening. No autopsy was ever performed confirming the cause of death.
  1479.  
  1480. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1481.  
  1482. ~~~
  1483.  
  1484. 12/25/2000 6:34:00 PM
  1485. This Day in Wrestling History 12-25
  1486.  
  1487. by Dave Meltzer
  1488.  
  1489. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1490.  
  1491. ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY
  1492.  
  1493. 1902 - Dan McLeod wins the American heavyweight championship from Tom Jenkins in Worcester, MA when it is claimed Jenkins suffered from blood poisoning in his leg and forfeited the third fall. In the early part of the century, it was routine after a loss to claim some sort of an injury to the point newspapers often made jokes about injury claims. The American title six years later became the world heavyweight title when Frank Gotch beat George Hackenschmidt.
  1494.  
  1495. 1905 - After losing two matches earlier in the year to Tom Jenkins in challenging for the American title, Frank Gotch wins a 50-man tournament in Montreal
  1496.  
  1497. 1965 - Dick the Bruiser defeated Gene Kiniski to win the Indianapolis WWA version of the world heavyweight title
  1498.  
  1499. 1976 - Ric Flair & Greg Valentine each captured their first NWA world tag team title with a win over Gene & Ole Anderson in Greensboro
  1500.  
  1501. 1978 - Christmas becomes a major night around the country as Bill Watts promotes his first wrestling show ever at the Superdome headlined by Andre the Giant & Dusty Rhodes winning the vacant U.S. tag team title beating Stan Hansen & Ernie Ladd, while in Fort Worth, Kevin Von Erich won the American title for the first time over Bruiser Brody
  1502.  
  1503. 1979 - At the Omni Christmas spectacular, Jack & Jerry Brisco defeated The Masked Superstar (Bill Eadie) & Austin Idol to win the Georgia tag team championship. In what was believed to have been the only wrestler ever to die from missing a tope, a masked 23-year-old wrestler named Sangre India died after a missed move in Mexico City at Arena Coliseo.
  1504.  
  1505. 1982 - In the match which almost single-handedly made World Class Championship Wrestling from just another struggling regional promotion to one of the hottest promotions in the world, Ric Flair defeated Kerry Von Erich in a cage match before 12,000 fans paying a then-state record $105,000 gate in the famous Dallas Reunion Arena match with Michael Hayes as referee turning heel on the Von Erichs and Terry Gordy slamming the cage door shut on Kerry's head. While slamming the cage door has become a cliche of cage matches, this instance led to two straight years of huge business as it kicked off the Freebirds vs. Von Erichs feud.
  1506.  
  1507. 1983 - With the company at this point on fire, Reunion Arena was overflowed with 18,500 fans paying a new state record of $200,000 as Ric Flair beat David Von Erich via DQ and Kevin & Mike Von Erich beat Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts in the losing team has to leave town match. . . Ricky Steamboat announced he was retiring from wrestling to open up a gym in Charlotte. He returned for a big match with Ric Flair about two months later.
  1508.  
  1509. 1991 - Jushin Liger defeated Brian Pillman to win the WCW light heavyweight title at the Omni in Atlanta. Liger and Pillman went around the country doing Match of the Years nearly every night to establish the division, which was the in-ring highlight match of most PPV shows in 1992 before the division was downplayed when Bill Watts took over WCW and Pillman fell into his doghouse.
  1510.  
  1511. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1512.  
  1513. ~~~~~~
  1514.  
  1515.  
  1516. 12/26/2000 6:04:00 AM
  1517. This Day in Wrestling History 12-26
  1518.  
  1519. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1520.  
  1521. ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY FOR 12-26
  1522.  
  1523. 1963 - The original Gorgeous George, real named Raymond George Wagner, passed away of a heart attack at his Hollywood, CA apartment at the age of 48. George was the most well known wrestler in the country when pro wrestling hit network television in 1949 with his bleached blond hair and fancy robes and spawned generations of wrestlers who followed suit. While George was such a huge attraction in the early days, when television and movie stars frequented the wrestling matches, he often commanded 50 percent of the gate, an unheard of percentage either before or since. After being the highest paid wrestler in history by the early 50s, and likely the highest paid athlete in the world at the time when $100,000 athletes were almost non-existent, he died penniless.
  1524.  
  1525. 1981 - While wrestling as a heel in Florida for his only major heel run of his career, David Von Erich defeated Jack Brisco in St. Petersburg at the Bayfront Center to win the Southern heavyweight title.
  1526.  
  1527. 1983 - The Iron Sheik defeated Bob Backlund in Madison Square Garden to win the WWF heavyweight title when Backlund's manager, Arnold Skaaland, threw in the towel when Backlund was caught in the camel clutch. With the exception of a one week interruption by Antonio Inoki, Backlund had held the title since February 20, 1978 when he defeated Superstar Billy Graham, and during that period as a headliner sold out Madison Square Garden more than 40 times. Clearly his drawing power hadn't fallen too much in New York (some of the other cities weren't doing as well) as between the Garden sellout and closed circuit at the Felt Forum, an announced crowd of 24,592 attended the show. However, the plans by Vince McMahon Jr. to go national had already been laid out and the title switch became evident the next day when Hulk Hogan appeared at a WWF television taping in St. Louis. Backlund only lasted a few more months in the WWF before being fired when he refused McMahon Jr.'s decision to bleach his hair and turn heel. Years later he returned to the WWF as a heel.
  1528.  
  1529. 1985 - One of the great tag teams of the era, Ted DiBiase & Steve Williams, captured the Mid South tag team titles from Dick Murdoch & Eddie Gilbert in Biloxi, MS. Three months later the belts were re-named the UWF tag team titles. DiBiase & Williams remained a team until Jim Crockett Jr. purchased the UWF from Bill Watts in early 1987.
  1530.  
  1531. 1987 - Randy Savage defeated Honky Tonk Man via DQ and Greg Valentine beat Brutus Beefcake via count out in the double headliner in Madison Square Garden.
  1532.  
  1533. 1988 - The first PPV show ever for World Championship Wrestling, shortly after purchasing the company from Jim Crockett, Starrcade '88 took place at the Scope in Norfolk. The show drew about 10,000 fans in the 13,000-seat Arena for a gate of $150,000 and received 94 percent thumbs up in the Observer poll, headlined by a ****1/2 match where Ric Flair pinned Lex Luger in 30:59. Yes, Flair really was "the man." Dusty Rhodes had originally, since he and Flair were at odds, wanted to book Starrcade with Rick Steiner winning the NWA title from Flair in a quick match, but Jim Herd, in one of his first acts as new Vice President of the company hired by TBS, insisted that Flair, who TBS felt was the company's most valuable asset, score a clean win over Luger, since Flair was never scoring clean wins. As it was, Flair used the ropes for the win.
  1534.  
  1535. 1990 - New Japan Pro Wrestling had a two-hour live prime time special from Hamamatsu headlined by Tatsumi Fujinami winning the IWGP heavyweight title from Riki Choshu, but the show was more memorable for being the final appearance as a wrestler by Lou Thesz, who at the age of 74, lost to Masahiro Chono's STF in a match he regrets ever doing as his artificial hip went out trying to do a piledriver and he had to gut his way through the rest of the match. Thesz became the first wrestler ever to wrestle in seven decades (Mae Young has since done the same). Nick Bockwinkel, at 56, and Hiro Matsuda, at 53, also came out of retirement on the show, which drew a 10.0 rating.
  1536.  
  1537.  
  1538.  
  1539. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1540.  
  1541. ~~~~~
  1542.  
  1543. 12/27/2000 5:50:00 PM
  1544. This Day in Wrestling History 12-27
  1545.  
  1546. by Dave Meltzer
  1547.  
  1548. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1549.  
  1550. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY
  1551.  
  1552. 1943 - One of the most famous masked men in pro wrestling history, Bill Eadie, was born. Eadie was known by a variety of names around the world, starting as Bolo Mongol with Tattrie Newton, later becoming The Masked Superstar in the late 70s and early 80s in the Southeast and with New Japan where he was a top headliner, and finally going to the WWF as Demolition Ax, holding the tag team title on several occasions.
  1553.  
  1554. 1966 - Morris Siegel, the legendary promoter in Houston, TX dating back to the early days of pro wrestling passed away at the age of 69. With Siegel's death, Paul Boesch, his leading assistant, took over as promoter for the next 21 years and became one of the most famous promoters of that era in wrestling. . . Bill Goldberg was also born on this day, making today his 34th birthday.
  1555.  
  1556. 1967 - Two major title changes took place as Blackjack Lanza, managed by Bobby Heenan, captured the WWA world heavyweight title in Indianapolis from Wilbur Snyder. Lanza and Heenan were together, on-and-off, as manager and protege through the early 80s before Lanza retired to his current job as a road agent for the WWF and he's responsible for helping lay out many of the big matches you see on television and PPV. . . Johnny Valentine, who is currently fighting for his life, captured the Florida heavyweight title at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa from Joe Scarpa, a major star who would became even more famous in the 70s when he went to the WWWF as Chief Jay Strongbow.
  1557.  
  1558. 1968 - One of the legendary tag teams of the 70s, The Texas Outlaws, Dick Murdoch & Dusty Rhodes, lost what may have been the first tag team title they ever held after getting together, the Central States tag team titles to The Viking & Bob Geigel at Memorial Hall in Kansas City.
  1559.  
  1560. 1982 - Before it became known as the Dusty finish, Jerry Lawler pinned Nick Bockwinkel to apparently win the AWA heavyweight title, but it was overruled by AWA President Stanley Blackburn at ringside because before the pinfall, there was an over the top rope DQ call missed by the referee that Blackburn saw.
  1561.  
  1562. 1983 - In one of the key nights of modern wrestling history, this was the night of the first WWF television taping at the Chase Hotel in St. Louis, with numerous surprise guests including the WWF return of Hulk Hogan and debut of David Shults and Gene Okerlund, all signed away from Verne Gagne, and of Roddy Piper, who was first, because of his size, scheduled to be used only as a heel manager, signed away from Jim Crockett where he was one of the top draws. This raiding of talent, in the case of the AWA talent, unbeknownst to Verne Gagne and with the wrestlers walking out without giving notice on advertised dates, signalled to the world that the famous "War of '84" was set to begin, the war that changed pro wrestling and this industry for good.
  1563.  
  1564. 1987 - An unheralded AWA prelim wrestler named Leon White, was brought in as the new monster creation of Antonio Inoki and New Japan Pro Wrestling under the name Big Van Vader, and shockingly pinned Inoki in less than three minutes in an unannounced match at Tokyo Sumo Hall. Vader, a role originally scheduled to be played by Jim Hellwig, who instead went to WWF instead of New Japan and became famous as The Ultimate Warrior, was managed by the most popular late night TV host in Japan. While the host only lasted one show, wanting to disassociate himself from pro wrestling because there was a huge riot at Sumo Hall because fans felt cheated by a screw-job ending and short match between Inoki and Riki Choshu, the advertised main event, Vader became one of the biggest superstars in company history. From humble beginnings, as a huge guy who was carried by Tatsumi Fujinami, he improved to being one of the best in-ring performers of his size in pro wrestling history. . . In Las Vegas, The Midnight Rockers, Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty, won the AWA tag team titles from The Original Midnight Express, Dennis Condrey & Randy Rose managed by Paul E Dangerously.
  1565.  
  1566. 1991 - One of the biggest names of the 50s and 60s, Wilbur Snyder, passed away at his home in Fort Lauderdale, FL of a heart attack at the age of 62. Snyder continued to wrestle into the early 80s. His biggest matches were in the 50s when he won the U.S. title from Verne Gagne on April 7, 1956, and held both the WWA and Omaha versions of the world heavyweight title and numerous tag team titles with various partners.
  1567.  
  1568. 1993 - Starrcade '93 at the Charlotte Independence Arena saw Ric Flair pin Big Van Vader in a match where Flair vowed to retire if he lost. While the show had little to offer other than the main event, it was one of the most memorable matches of the era. The show drew 75% thumbs up in the Observer balloting and was considered Flair's 11th world heavyweight title and of all his title wins, was easily the most memorable and considered the best TV build-up of any match in the five-year history of the WCW promotion. The irony was this was never supposed to take place, as the plan for Starrcade was for Sid Vicious to beat Vader and win the title, but instead, Vicious and Arn Anderson had their brawl in an England hotel room which resulted in Vicious being fired, and Flair was called upon to save the day. To show how different economics are these days, the show drew only 5,500 paid and 8,200 total $65,000, which were the best numbers for WCW that entire year, and an 0.55 buy rate, the company's best of the year.
  1569.  
  1570. 1994 - A less memorable Starrcade '94 in Nashville drew WCW's first major arena true sellout in several years with 7,000 fans paying $90,000 (8,200 total in the building). The idea of a true sellout was so foreign that WCW employees were out front taking photos of the box office with the "sold out" sign. The show received a 78% thumbs down response, and drew an 0.60 buy rate, with no match better than the **1/4 for the Nasty Boys vs. Harlem Heat. The main event, at 3/4*, saw Hulk Hogan pin long-time best friend Ed Leslie, billed as The Butcher, in 12:07 to retain the WCW title.
  1571.  
  1572. 1995 - With a little more paper, Starrcade again packed Nashville with 8,200 fans, this time with 6,018 paying $83,855 but drawing a poor 0.36 buy rate for a great show billed as the World Cup of Wrestling. In one of the worst big matches of his career, Ric Flair won a triangle match, long before the term three-way dance was in the national wrestling lexicon, over Sting and Lex Luger in 28:03, and then in a second disappointing match, defeated Randy Savage when Arn Anderson hit Savage with a foreign object to win the WCW title in a call made by Hulk Hogan at the last minute to take the title from Savage to put it on Flair, so Hogan could be fed. Highlight of the show were undercard matches involving New Japan vs. WCW talent, in particular Koji Kanemoto beating Alex Wright in a ***3/4 match and Shinjiro Otani, who stole the show, pinning Eddy Guerrero in a ****1/4 match. WCW ended up winning the best of seven against New Japan when Sting beat Kensuke Sasaki with the scorpion in a *** match.
  1573.  
  1574. 1998 - Bill Goldberg's winning streak ended at the hands of Kevin Nash to headline Starrcade '98 at the MCI Arena in Washington, DC before a sellout 16,066 paying $584,236, the largest house ever for a WCW PPV event, and a 1.15 buy rate. The show drew an 83 percent thumbs down, despite the greatest opening match in Starrcade history, a three-way where Billy Kidman retained the cruiserweight title over both Juventud Guerrera and Rey Misterio Jr. in a ****1/2 match. Kidman then beat Eddy Guerrero in a ***1/2 match to keep the title. This was also the night Eric Bischoff scored his pinfall over Ric Flair.
  1575.  
  1576. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1577.  
  1578. ~~~~~
  1579.  
  1580. 12/31/2000 3:41:00 AM
  1581. This Day in History 12-28
  1582.  
  1583. by Dave Meltzer
  1584.  
  1585. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY
  1586.  
  1587. 1963 - The Tolos Brothers, John & Chris, captured the WWWF United States tag team titles (forerunner of today's WWF tag team titles) from Gorilla Monsoon & Killer Kowalski in Teaneck, NJ
  1588.  
  1589. 1968 - Dick the Bruiser & The Crusher captured the unified AWA and WWA world tag team titles from Dr. Moto (Tor Kamata) & Mitsu Arakawa at the Ampitheatre in Chicago
  1590.  
  1591. 1980 - Kerry Von Erich, at the age of 20, captured the American
  1592. heavyweight title for the first time over 23-year-old Gino Hernandez at the Sportatorium in Dallas. While both men at the time seemed to have a limitless future in the industry, but died young, Von Erich at 33, Hernandez at 27, after extensive drug problems.
  1593.  
  1594. 1982 - Bob Backlund defeated Superstar Billy Graham in a Lumberjack match before a sellout in Madison Square Garden, which also included Pedro Morales keeping the IC title going to a double DQ with Don Muraco and Jimmy Snuka beating Ray Stevens via count out.
  1595.  
  1596. 1984 - Hulk Hogan pinned The Iron Sheik in 4:34 before an announced crowd of 26,092 fans, a sellout in both Madison Square Garden and the adjacent Felt Forum. Also on the show, Dick Murdoch & Adrian Adonis retained the WWF tag team titles going to a draw with Jack & Jerry Brisco. Jack, then 43, fed up with the road and the direction of the business, went home a few days later and unlike virtually every other wrestling superstar in
  1597. history, he never came back. Another top drawing match on the show was a double DQ with Roddy Piper & Bob Orton vs. Jimmy Snuka & Tonga Kid, while an undercard high flying match saw The Cobra, George Takano under a mask, win the vacant WWF jr. heavyweight title beating Black Tiger, England's Mark Hussey. But the biggest news story of all from this show was backstage, when ABC's 20/20 was filming to do a feature that aired several weeks later that revealed, egads, that pro wrestling matches had
  1598. predetermined endings and that the punches really don't land. John Stossel, in one of the more famous television news clips in history, was interviewing David Shults, who was hot because he had to do a job for Antonio Inoki on this show, and told Shults, "I think it's fake," about pro wrestling. Shults slapped Stossel twice, hard across each ear. Stossel later settled out-of-court in a lawsuit against the WWF for $425,000. While it is widely believed Shults was fired by the WWF for this, he actually was suspended by the New York State Athletic Commission and fined. When the suspension was lifted, he was brought back. He was fired a few months later when he tried to attack Mr. T in Los Angeles just before T was to headline the first Wrestlemania.
  1599.  
  1600. 1992 - Starrcade was held before 8,000 fans, roughly a half house, at the Omni in Atlanta, which was 6,500 paying $70,000 and an 0.5 percent buy rate, with the highlight being Sting pinning Big Van Vader to win the King of Cable tournament in a ****1/2 match, along with Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas keeping the NWA & WCW tag team titles over Brian Pillman & Barry Windham in a ****1/4 match. The show ended in a Battle Royal,
  1601. which was anticlimactic after the two previous bouts, won by Great Muta, who earlier in the show had a disappointing loss in an NWA title match to Masahiro Chono. The show drew 68 percent thumbs up in the Observer poll.
  1602.  
  1603. 1997 - In the most successful PPV in the history of World Championship Wrestling, Sting won the WCW title from Hulk Hogan on a show which drew 640,000 buys, as well as a sellout 17,500 fans paying $543,000 to the MCI Center in Washington, DC. The finish saw ref Nick Patrick supposed to give Sting a fast count, except he didn't count fast. Bret Hart, after being screwed a few weeks earlier, was to come in as ref to save the day, except the count wasn't fast and the psychology was all messed up because of it. Sting never came close to the popularity and drawing power that was built for him on this show since the match was a disappointment. Earlier Larry Zbyszko beat Eric Bischoff via DQ with Hart as referee and Diamond Dallas Page won the U.S. title from Curt Hennig.
  1604. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1605.  
  1606. ~~
  1607.  
  1608. 12/29/2000 8:03:00 PM
  1609. This Day in Wrestling History 12-29
  1610.  
  1611. by Dave Meltzer
  1612.  
  1613. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1614.  
  1615. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY
  1616.  
  1617. 1930 - The biggest drawing card of his era, Jim Londos delivered the second of four consecutive sellouts of Madison Square Garden with a win over Ferenc Holuban before 19,715 fans paying $44,878.
  1618.  
  1619. 1937 - A 21-year-old local wrestler named Lou Thesz became the youngest world heavyweight champion in history with a victory over Everett Marshall before 8,000 fans in St. Louis. Thesz' first reign only lasted ten weeks, but he would go on to hold the title for more time than any wrestler in history, with a total of somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 total title reigns, the last one ending in 1978, when he was 62 years old.
  1620.  
  1621. 1980 - In another international television taping in Madison Square Garden before a crowd a few thousand shy of capacity, Bob Backlund retained the WWF title pinning Killer Khan, while IC champion Pedro Morales pinned The Hangman (Neil Guay). New Japan stars Antonio Inoki (beating Bobby Duncum Sr.), Tatsumi Fujinami (beating Don Diamond) and Seiji Sakaguchi (NC with Sika) worked the undercard, which also included the pro debut of 1980 Japanese Olympian Yoshiaki Yatsu.
  1622.  
  1623. 1985 - Stan Hansen wins the AWA world heavyweight title from Rick Martel at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, NJ on a combined NWA and WCW show which was headlined by Ric Flair beating Dusty Rhodes to keep the NWA title with, what else, the Dusty finish DQ.
  1624.  
  1625. 1991 - Starrcade '91 took place at the Scope in Norfolk, VA before 9,000 fans paying $92,000 with a series of blind draw tag team matches, "The Lethal Lottery," ending in a Battle Royal won by Sting. The show was poorly received, garnering only 11 percent favorable response in the Observer poll.
  1626.  
  1627. 1996 - The revitalized WCW sold out Starrcade '96 several weeks in advance, drawing a paid attendance of 8,327 paying $113,040 to the Nashville Municipal Auditorium and an 0.95 percent buy rate, making it at the time the most profitable PPV in company history featuring the in-ring debut of Roddy Piper, beating Hulk Hogan with a sleeper in a show that drew 86 percent favorable response. The show stealer was a ****1/2 match where Ultimo Dragon wound up with ten different title belts, pinning Dean Malenko. Dragon ended with the WCW cruiserweight title to go along with the NWA middleweight, IWGP jr. heavyweight, NWA jr. heavyweight, Great Britain jr. heavyweight, WWA jr. light heavyweight, UWA light heavyweight, NWA welterweight, WWF light heavyweight and WAR International jr. heavyweight title). Eddy Guerrero pinned Diamond Dallas Page to win the vacant U.S. title and in a battle of the best high flier of the early 90s against the best of the late 90s, Jushin Liger pinned Rey Misterio Jr.
  1628.  
  1629. 1998 - Mick Foley captured his first WWF title beating Rock at the TV tapings in Worcester, MA, for the climactic scene in the later best selling book, "Have a Nice Day."
  1630.  
  1631. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1632.  
  1633. ~~~~~~
  1634.  
  1635. 12/30/2000 1:51:00 PM
  1636. This Day in Wrestling History 12-30
  1637.  
  1638. by Dave Meltzer
  1639.  
  1640. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  1641.  
  1642. THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY FOR 12-30
  1643.  
  1644. 1922 - World heavyweight wrestling champion Ed "Strangler" Lewis issued a challenge to World heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey for a mixed match. Sports Illustrated not too long ago ran a story about the negotiations, as did a UK based boxing magazine, which at times, came close to fruition. Bottom line is that Dempsey did some training against wrestlers, realized it would be an embarrassing situation, and the match never took place.
  1645.  
  1646. 1972 - One of the great tag teams of all-time, Ray Stevens & Nick Bockwinkel, dropped their AWA world tag team titles briefly in Minneapolis to the top two singles wrestlers in the territory at the time, Verne Gagne & Billy Robinson.
  1647.  
  1648. 1985 - Bill Dundee defeated Jerry Lawler in a loser leaves town match in Memphis. Lawler was supposed to leave for six months, and mainly wrestle indie dates and work a lot in Hawaii. A combination of the money in Hawaii not being good, and the Memphis territory falling quickly to death levels, so Lawler brought back well ahead of time, for some huge gates and classic matches teaming with Dutch Mantel against Dundee & Buddy Landel. . . In Madison Square Garden before a sellout of 20,225 fans, Randy Savage defeated WWF champ Hulk Hogan via count out in the main event while tag champs Greg Valentine & Brutus Beefcake retained over the British Bulldogs.
  1649.  
  1650. 1986 - In a battle of the two biggest heavyweight stars in Mexico at the time, Dos Caras pinned Canek to win the UWA world heavyweight title
  1651.  
  1652. 1988 - Randy Savage retained the WWF title beating Badnews Brown (Allan Coage) before a sellout in Madison Square Garden which also included the Powers of Pain beating Demolition via count out in a tag team title match. . . In one of the strangest results you'll ever see, 260 pound, at the time, Cactus Jack, captured the World Class light heavyweight title from Eric Embry at the Dallas Sportatorium. I wonder if anyone told him at the time that being a junior heavyweight in category would ruin his career? I wonder if many people, besides Foley, wondered how a man of that weight could be a junior heavyweight in the first place?
  1653.  
  1654. 1992 - The experiment of making Ron Simmons, now Faarooq, the WCW world heavyweight champion in an attempt to boost attendance with African American fans was given up on officially, as Big Van Vader regained the title at the Baltimore Arena as WCW business was in another tailspin.
  1655.  
  1656.  
  1657.  
  1658. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  1659.  
  1660. ~~~~
  1661.  
  1662. 2000: Nov
  1663. Dec
  1664.  
  1665.  
  1666. 2001: Jan
  1667.  
  1668. Feb
  1669.  
  1670. Mar
  1671.  
  1672. Apr
  1673.  
  1674. May
  1675.  
  1676. Jun
  1677.  
  1678. 1/31/2001 3:42:00 PM
  1679. What people of college age were watching on Monday night
  1680.  
  1681. 1/31/2001 2:37:00 PM
  1682. When college aged women watch Nitro, who do they want to see? And who really did Dusty draw?
  1683.  
  1684. 1/31/2001 12:45:00 PM
  1685. Observer ratings analysis: Results of the real Fatal-Four way for the title in the WWF
  1686.  
  1687. 1/31/2001 12:02:00 PM
  1688. Bulldog faces trial
  1689.  
  1690. 1/31/2001 11:59:00 AM
  1691. First Wednesday update; WCW injury, UPW and OVW big shows tonight, UFC negotiates with No. 1 ranked fighter for next PPV
  1692.  
  1693. 1/31/2001 3:29:00 AM
  1694. Smackdown spoilers 1-30 Columbus, OH
  1695.  
  1696. 1/30/2001 3:43:00 PM
  1697. Ratings update, Dusty pulls a number, some backstage Nitro notes
  1698.  
  1699. 1/30/2001 12:31:00 PM
  1700. Thunder spoilers, Former wrestler elected to Georgia sports Hall of Fame, Commercial edited
  1701.  
  1702. 1/29/2001 7:48:00 PM
  1703. Afternoon update; Crazy, Hogan, NWA welterweight title
  1704.  
  1705. 1/29/2001 4:13:00 PM
  1706. Shamrock Wrestles in the USA
  1707.  
  1708. 1/29/2001 12:56:00 PM
  1709. Tajiri, Crazy update; Super Bowl, Survivor, Bruno, weekend results
  1710.  
  1711. 1/29/2001 3:02:00 AM
  1712. Comments on George Will on XFL; Indie news
  1713.  
  1714. 1/28/2001 5:24:00 PM
  1715. WWF Pre-game Pandemonium house show 1-28 Philadelphia
  1716.  
  1717. 1/28/2001 5:01:00 PM
  1718. This Day in Wrestling History for 1-28
  1719.  
  1720. 1/28/2001 1:25:00 PM
  1721. ECW news, Observer news, results from last night
  1722.  
  1723. 1/28/2001 1:23:00 PM
  1724. All Japan Tokyo Dome results from 1-28
  1725.  
  1726. 1/28/2001 3:45:00 AM
  1727. Detailed MSG rundown
  1728.  
  1729. 1/28/2001 12:33:00 AM
  1730. WWF weekend news notes
  1731.  
  1732. 1/28/2001 12:16:00 AM
  1733. Madison Square Garden report for 1-27
  1734.  
  1735. 1/27/2001 7:38:00 PM
  1736. Updates on Crazy, Tajiri, Galavision
  1737.  
  1738. 1/27/2001 5:12:00 PM
  1739. This Day in Wrestling History for 1-27
  1740.  
  1741. 1/27/2001 10:58:00 AM
  1742. First Saturday update; Chyna, indie news, Silly Akebono story
  1743.  
  1744. 1/26/2001 11:03:00 PM
  1745. Bruno; Credible update; Tokyo Dome update; Smackdown rating
  1746.  
  1747. 1/26/2001 11:01:00 PM
  1748. WCW Nitro preview; WWF firing; and what does Big Show really weigh?
  1749.  
  1750. 1/26/2001 4:43:00 PM
  1751. Pro wrestling weekend notes
  1752.  
  1753. 1/26/2001 2:06:00 PM
  1754. Credible, Eaton sign with WWF; Outside the Lines on XFL
  1755.  
  1756. 1/26/2001 1:22:00 PM
  1757. First Friday update; Smackdown rating, High fliers at WCW taping, Bruno on Observer Live, Sandman at ECW Arena
  1758.  
  1759. 1/26/2001 2:56:00 AM
  1760. On This Day in Wrestling History for 1-26
  1761.  
  1762. 1/25/2001 8:36:00 PM
  1763. Thunder rating, Modest, Daniels, Galavision, More on Tate trial
  1764.  
  1765. 1/25/2001 8:33:00 PM
  1766. Ventura Subject of Comic Strip
  1767.  
  1768. 1/25/2001 2:53:00 PM
  1769. Tate found guilty in Florida murder trial
  1770.  
  1771. 1/25/2001 1:32:00 PM
  1772. First Thursday update; Ultimate Warrior returns, Hansen honored, Kobashi update
  1773.  
  1774. 1/24/2001 8:16:00 PM
  1775. Daniels injury update; UPW notes; World title in Mexico defended
  1776.  
  1777. 1/24/2001 7:39:00 PM
  1778. Wrestling drug doctor charged with 48 counts
  1779.  
  1780. 1/24/2001 5:26:00 PM
  1781. William Regal Update
  1782.  
  1783. 1/24/2001 4:41:00 PM
  1784. Nitro ratings for Tuesday
  1785.  
  1786. 1/24/2001 2:20:00 PM
  1787. 1-29 Wrestling Observer Preview
  1788.  
  1789. 1/24/2001 12:54:00 PM
  1790. First Wednesday update; Ratings analysis, Steiner; WWC news
  1791.  
  1792. 1/24/2001 2:49:00 AM
  1793. Scott Steiner arrested; Galavision time change; Abraham Lincoln
  1794.  
  1795. 1/24/2001 1:41:00 AM
  1796. Smackdown/Heat taping report 1-23 Mobile, AL
  1797.  
  1798. 1/23/2001 4:35:00 PM
  1799. Ratings
  1800.  
  1801. 1/23/2001 12:38:00 PM
  1802. First Tuesday update; XFL, Hogan, Raw, Court TV
  1803.  
  1804. 1/23/2001 3:18:00 AM
  1805. More Nitro and Thunder news
  1806.  
  1807. 1/23/2001 12:45:00 AM
  1808. Nitro/Thunder report from 1-22 in Winston-Salem, NC
  1809.  
  1810. 1/22/2001 3:31:00 PM
  1811. Afternoon update; Kobashi; XFL; WWC
  1812.  
  1813. 1/22/2001 11:56:00 AM
  1814. Early Monday news notes; Crazy & Tajiri in CZW; Mushnick on Observer Live
  1815.  
  1816. 1/22/2001 11:54:00 AM
  1817. WCW house show report 1-21 Columbia, SC
  1818.  
  1819. 1/22/2001 4:14:00 AM
  1820. Last Sunday notes; Article on Harts; A&E; Special; More on Rumble
  1821.  
  1822. 1/21/2001 11:10:00 PM
  1823. Royal Rumble flash rundown
  1824.  
  1825. 1/21/2001 7:55:00 PM
  1826. Royal Rumble as it happens
  1827.  
  1828. 1/21/2001 6:24:00 PM
  1829. Royal Rumble surprises
  1830.  
  1831. 1/21/2001 1:03:00 PM
  1832. First Sunday update; Shooting down rumors about Rumble, Hansen, Dreamer, Chyna book
  1833.  
  1834. 1/21/2001 1:49:00 AM
  1835. As if Kobashi hasn't had enough bad news
  1836.  
  1837. 1/20/2001 6:08:00 PM
  1838. Tentative WCW plans regarding re-launching of the promotion
  1839.  
  1840. 1/20/2001 6:05:00 PM
  1841. WCW SuperBrawl line-up for 2/18 in Nashville
  1842.  
  1843. 1/20/2001 1:49:00 PM
  1844. First Saturday update; lots of indie news and results; ECW guys get work on small shows
  1845.  
  1846. 1/20/2001 1:46:00 PM
  1847. Even more bad news for Kobashi
  1848.  
  1849. 1/19/2001 8:10:00 PM
  1850. Smackdown ratings; Nitro preview; Kobashi's injuries worsen
  1851.  
  1852. 1/19/2001 6:37:00 PM
  1853. XFL Sponser Woes
  1854.  
  1855. 1/19/2001 4:20:00 PM
  1856. Ross Report notes and comments; decision on Michaels return is made; Austin, Rock injuries
  1857.  
  1858. 1/19/2001 12:51:00 PM
  1859. Thunder ratings
  1860.  
  1861. 1/19/2001 12:29:00 PM
  1862. First Friday update; Ratings study; Smackdown early numbers; Yokozuna coroner report
  1863.  
  1864. 1/19/2001 10:52:00 AM
  1865. TSN, not Syndicate Inc Censor the Sid Injury
  1866.  
  1867. 1/19/2001 2:52:00 AM
  1868. Weekend wrestling notes
  1869.  
  1870. 1/18/2001 9:43:00 PM
  1871. Update on Kobashi's knees, bad news from today; Toryumon title bout
  1872.  
  1873. 1/18/2001 8:43:00 PM
  1874. Stephanie McMahon on Opie and Anthony show highlights
  1875.  
  1876. 1/18/2001 8:42:00 PM
  1877. WWF inauguration plans; CMLL Japan main matches
  1878.  
  1879. 1/18/2001 7:07:00 PM
  1880. XFL Article in Business 2.0
  1881.  
  1882. 1/18/2001 4:00:00 PM
  1883. New Japan News
  1884.  
  1885. 1/18/2001 3:51:00 PM
  1886. Hogan and Sid updates
  1887.  
  1888. 1/18/2001 3:30:00 PM
  1889. New Book on Pro Wrestling
  1890.  
  1891. 1/18/2001 4:33:00 AM
  1892. Latest arena results
  1893.  
  1894. 1/17/2001 4:25:00 PM
  1895. LATV Mistakes XPW for ECW
  1896.  
  1897. 1/17/2001 4:17:00 PM
  1898. Ratings for the week updated
  1899.  
  1900. 1/17/2001 4:03:00 PM
  1901. Rhino, King Kong Bundy do Indy Show in Toronto
  1902.  
  1903. 1/17/2001 3:53:00 PM
  1904. 1-22 Wrestling Observer Preview
  1905.  
  1906. 1/17/2001 3:50:00 PM
  1907. Top wrestlers pick 20th century MVP awards; Nitro vs. Raw poll
  1908.  
  1909. 1/17/2001 3:33:00 AM
  1910. New Japan announces PPV line-up
  1911.  
  1912. 1/17/2001 3:20:00 AM
  1913. More Smackdown spoiler notes
  1914.  
  1915. 1/17/2001 1:44:00 AM
  1916. Sabu & Van Dam Japan update; New Japan press conference; BET and Galavision
  1917.  
  1918. 1/17/2001 1:28:00 AM
  1919. Smackdown spoilers 1-16 Chicago
  1920.  
  1921. 1/16/2001 9:55:00 PM
  1922. Details of XFL rules, and thank god, they've banned the head slap
  1923.  
  1924. 1/16/2001 5:32:00 PM
  1925. WWF Stock Report-Tuesday
  1926.  
  1927. 1/16/2001 12:17:00 PM
  1928. Ratings notes, FMW PPV, auto accident
  1929.  
  1930. 1/16/2001 5:29:00 AM
  1931. How's this for a stip match that won't be lived up to?
  1932.  
  1933. 1/16/2001 5:27:00 AM
  1934. ECW update, Raw, Nitro, Kobashi, backstage notes
  1935.  
  1936. 1/16/2001 1:09:00 AM
  1937. NItro Shows Gruesome Sid Injury
  1938.  
  1939. 1/16/2001 12:59:00 AM
  1940. Spike Dudley Comments on ECW
  1941.  
  1942. 1/16/2001 12:46:00 AM
  1943. Thunder report for Wednesday from tonight in Fort Wayne
  1944.  
  1945. 1/15/2001 7:50:00 PM
  1946. WWF Green Bay notes; indie notes
  1947.  
  1948. 1/15/2001 5:14:00 PM
  1949. Raw line-up for tonight
  1950.  
  1951. 1/15/2001 4:19:00 PM
  1952. WWF House Show Results From Madison, WI 1/14/00
  1953.  
  1954. 1/15/2001 1:35:00 PM
  1955. Monday notes: Sin Repsonse, WWC, Windham, Gaea
  1956.  
  1957. 1/15/2001 3:57:00 AM
  1958. Final Sunday night update; feedback on Sin; WWF, IWA news
  1959.  
  1960. 1/14/2001 11:36:00 PM
  1961. Sid Vicious update
  1962.  
  1963. 1/14/2001 11:25:00 PM
  1964. Botched main event finish at WCW Sin, complete show rundown
  1965.  
  1966. 1/14/2001 7:56:00 PM
  1967. WCW Sin updated throughout the show
  1968.  
  1969. 1/14/2001 4:42:00 PM
  1970. Notes from WCW and ECW
  1971.  
  1972. 1/14/2001 2:08:00 PM
  1973. Sunday notes; PPV coverage, murder trial to open, indie notes
  1974.  
  1975. 1/14/2001 4:28:00 AM
  1976. Complete 1-28 Tokyo Dome show announced
  1977.  
  1978. 1/14/2001 4:19:00 AM
  1979. Saturday and Sunday news from ECW, All Japan, indies
  1980.  
  1981. 1/13/2001 1:23:00 PM
  1982. First Saturday update; International and indie news
  1983.  
  1984. 1/13/2001 12:57:00 PM
  1985. ECW report 1-12 from Poplar Bluff, MO
  1986.  
  1987. 1/13/2001 11:07:00 AM
  1988. Live Report from Jan 13 Noah show at Osaka Prefectural Gym
  1989.  
  1990. 1/12/2001 5:35:00 PM
  1991. ECW weekend update
  1992.  
  1993. 1/12/2001 4:47:00 PM
  1994. WWF news updates
  1995.  
  1996. 1/12/2001 4:29:00 PM
  1997. Many top names not at ECW show
  1998.  
  1999. 1/12/2001 4:27:00 PM
  2000. Smackdown final ratings
  2001.  
  2002. 1/12/2001 3:44:00 PM
  2003. Notes on the upcoming weekend
  2004.  
  2005. 1/12/2001 3:42:00 PM
  2006. Some familiar faces on XFL announcing team
  2007.  
  2008. 1/12/2001 11:24:00 AM
  2009. Smackdown ratings; Eyada preview
  2010.  
  2011. 1/12/2001 3:28:00 AM
  2012. Late night update; Dome; Test; ECW; More quotes on sale; IWA
  2013.  
  2014. 1/11/2001 8:37:00 PM
  2015. Early evening update
  2016.  
  2017. 1/11/2001 5:15:00 PM
  2018. If the WCW sale wasn't enough news for one day....UFC was sold today
  2019.  
  2020. 1/11/2001 2:35:00 PM
  2021. Bischoff, Van Dam, on Observer Live
  2022.  
  2023. 1/11/2001 1:01:00 PM
  2024. Hogan's comments on the latest news
  2025.  
  2026. 1/11/2001 11:19:00 AM
  2027. More on WCW sale
  2028.  
  2029. 1/11/2001 11:10:00 AM
  2030. WCW sale announced, some details
  2031.  
  2032. 1/11/2001 9:42:00 AM
  2033. Acclaimed indie announces folding
  2034.  
  2035. 1/11/2001 2:25:00 AM
  2036. Final sale update before announcement
  2037.  
  2038. 1/10/2001 8:08:00 PM
  2039. WCW sale expected to be announced tomorrow
  2040.  
  2041. 1/10/2001 1:23:00 PM
  2042. 1-15 Wrestling Observer Preview
  2043.  
  2044. 1/10/2001 12:46:00 PM
  2045. WWF star on Kilborn; Eyada show changes time; Zenk interview
  2046.  
  2047. 1/10/2001 11:48:00 AM
  2048. Updated 1-28 Dome line-up
  2049.  
  2050. 1/10/2001 11:46:00 AM
  2051. Classic '96 feud back in TJ on Friday w/ Rey Jr.
  2052.  
  2053. 1/10/2001 11:45:00 AM
  2054. Wednesday update; TV ratings, indie news, Van Dam
  2055.  
  2056. 1/10/2001 3:07:00 AM
  2057. Smackdown/Heat spoilers 1-9 Oakland live report and Rumble card
  2058.  
  2059. 1/9/2001 5:33:00 PM
  2060. Weekend and Monday ratings including more records
  2061.  
  2062. 1/9/2001 4:31:00 PM
  2063. Ratings
  2064.  
  2065. 1/9/2001 4:18:00 PM
  2066. WWF to air new show on MTV; more on WCW sale
  2067.  
  2068. 1/9/2001 12:50:00 PM
  2069. Thunder notes; Ratings; PR line-ups
  2070.  
  2071. 1/9/2001 12:49:00 PM
  2072. First Tuesday update: Angle; Observer awards; Van Dam
  2073.  
  2074. 1/9/2001 4:12:00 AM
  2075. All Japan announces 1-28 Dome main event
  2076.  
  2077. 1/9/2001 3:35:00 AM
  2078. This Day in Wrestling History for 1-5 and 1-9
  2079.  
  2080. 1/8/2001 10:44:00 PM
  2081. Upcoming Wrestling Observer Live guest list
  2082.  
  2083. 1/8/2001 10:42:00 PM
  2084. Results from around the world
  2085.  
  2086. 1/8/2001 4:30:00 PM
  2087. Raw and Royal Rumble notes; New Pride date in Canada
  2088.  
  2089. 1/8/2001 1:16:00 PM
  2090. Monday news notes; Raw vs. Nitro; Gracie vs. Murahama, WWC, More on Madden
  2091.  
  2092. 1/8/2001 3:25:00 AM
  2093. This Day in Wrestling History 1-8
  2094.  
  2095. 1/8/2001 1:05:00 AM
  2096. This Day in Wrestling History 1-7
  2097.  
  2098. 1/7/2001 11:12:00 PM
  2099. ECW Guilty as Charged report
  2100.  
  2101. 1/7/2001 7:55:00 PM
  2102. ECW Guilty as Charged rundown
  2103.  
  2104. 1/7/2001 5:53:00 PM
  2105. Latest updates; WWF news; Some funny stuff in mainstream article; IWA notes
  2106.  
  2107. 1/7/2001 2:19:00 PM
  2108. NOAH main event; More hype for 1-28 Dome
  2109.  
  2110. 1/7/2001 5:01:00 AM
  2111. Early Sunday update; ECW rumors, PR news
  2112.  
  2113. 1/6/2001 6:17:00 PM
  2114. This Day in Wrestling History 1-6
  2115.  
  2116. 1/6/2001 5:40:00 PM
  2117. WCW Sin updated card for 1-14
  2118.  
  2119. 1/6/2001 2:27:00 PM
  2120. First Saturday update; ECW on MSG; NJ PPV; Misawa vs. Hashimoto; Road Dogg resurfaces; Famous death in Mexico
  2121.  
  2122. 1/5/2001 9:07:00 PM
  2123. 1-28 Tokyo Dome update
  2124.  
  2125. 1/5/2001 9:05:00 PM
  2126. Pride 12 PPV schedule in U.S. and Canada
  2127.  
  2128. 1/5/2001 9:04:00 PM
  2129. Nitro matches, Weekend schedule; WWF updates; TV special; FX
  2130.  
  2131. 1/5/2001 4:17:00 PM
  2132. Smackdown ratings
  2133.  
  2134. 1/5/2001 2:50:00 PM
  2135. DSE planning biggest show in history
  2136.  
  2137. 1/5/2001 2:49:00 PM
  2138. Huge blow for UFC fans in California
  2139.  
  2140. 1/5/2001 2:48:00 PM
  2141. Update on ECW surprise on Sunday
  2142.  
  2143. 1/5/2001 12:24:00 PM
  2144. Bubba says WCW sold, Hogan new booker; Smackdown numbers; More fun from Vince in Playboy
  2145.  
  2146. 1/5/2001 12:57:00 AM
  2147. MSNBC special; Thunder rating; Madden story
  2148.  
  2149. 1/4/2001 10:50:00 PM
  2150. Top 80s Mexican star passes away
  2151.  
  2152. 1/4/2001 4:07:00 PM
  2153. This Day in Wrestling History 1-4 and it's a biggie; featuring a second update from 1998 you won't want to forget
  2154.  
  2155. 1/4/2001 1:02:00 PM
  2156. First Thursday update; Dome comments; Ratings; Van Dam; New Dome plan
  2157.  
  2158. 1/4/2001 1:40:00 AM
  2159. This Day in Wrestling History 12-31
  2160.  
  2161. 1/4/2001 1:40:00 AM
  2162. This Day in Wrestling History 1-1
  2163.  
  2164. 1/3/2001 8:20:00 PM
  2165. Legends together in TJ; Who's the WWF champ?
  2166.  
  2167. 1/3/2001 5:15:00 PM
  2168. Monday night and weekend WWF ratings
  2169.  
  2170. 1/3/2001 4:33:00 PM
  2171. Tarzan Boy finally turns heel
  2172.  
  2173. 1/3/2001 4:30:00 PM
  2174. Hall update
  2175.  
  2176. 1/3/2001 3:34:00 PM
  2177. This Day in Wrestling History 1-3
  2178.  
  2179. 1/3/2001 3:18:00 PM
  2180. Van Dam's first U.S. match back; Discovery Channel special
  2181.  
  2182. 1/3/2001 2:56:00 PM
  2183. 1-8 Wrestling Observer Preview
  2184.  
  2185. 1/3/2001 2:07:00 PM
  2186. First Wednesday update; XFL, Jarrett replacement in PR, Hall released
  2187.  
  2188. 1/2/2001 9:07:00 PM
  2189. WWF title odds; Harts; UFC TV special
  2190.  
  2191. 1/2/2001 4:20:00 PM
  2192. This Day in Wrestling History 1-2
  2193.  
  2194. 1/2/2001 1:28:00 PM
  2195. MSG says ECW canceled; Heyman says deal made
  2196.  
  2197. 1/2/2001 1:42:00 AM
  2198. All Japan adds Muto, Mascaras to Tokyo Dome show
  2199.  
  2200. 1/1/2001 5:18:00 PM
  2201. ECW on MSG; Mike Tyson in Japan?
  2202.  
  2203. 1/1/2001 5:06:00 PM
  2204. Monday update; ECW PPV card; WWF results
  2205.  
  2206. ~~~~~~
  2207.  
  2208. 1/4/2001 1:40:00 AM
  2209. This Day in Wrestling History 12-31
  2210.  
  2211. by Dave Meltzer
  2212.  
  2213. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  2214.  
  2215. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY FOR December 31
  2216.  
  2217. 1923 - Ed "Strangler" Lewis defeated Taro Miyake in Chicago in a match billed as being for the Jiu Jitsu championship of the world
  2218.  
  2219. 1975 - Newcomer Frank "The Hammer" Goodish captured his first major pro wrestling title when he defeated Rocky Johnson in Tampa at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory to win the Florida heavyweight title. Goodish later became Bruiser Brody, and just a few weeks ago was voted by active Japanese wrestlers as the single greatest American wrestler of all-time.
  2220.  
  2221. 1989 - The first pro wrestling event of all-time was held at Lenin Stadium in Moscow before 15,000 fans headlined by Antonio Inoki teaming with former Olympic gold medalist Shota Chochyashivili of the Soviet Union defeated former U.S. Olympic Brad Rheingans and former Japanese Olympian Masa Saito in the main event. Americans Manny Fernandez and Bam Bam Bigelow worked the show, promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling.
  2222.  
  2223. 1994 - Woody Strode, one of the first African Americans to be a headline wrestler during the 1940s and 1950s, passed away at the age of 80. Strode was far more famous for his later work as an actor including appearing in movies like "The Ten Commandments" and "The Cotton Club."
  2224.  
  2225. 1996 - Request TV President Hugh Panero said that based on information garnered from staff research on ECW, that he had decided to temporarily cancel doing any PPV events until doing more research. "During these discussions (about carrying an ECW PPV show) we learned about specific incidents involving an underage ECW wrestler who appeared to be seriously injured during an event in Massachusetts. We were surprised that ECW never mentioned that these public relations problems existed, and contrary to the claims made by the ECW, no tape of the incident was sent to anyone at Request TV. . . My staff was instructed to research these alleged incidents and discovered that they were true, and also learned that generally the ECW was theatrically more violent than other wrestilng events. Based on this new information and the fact that an ECW event would be a step up from being a local event to a national TV event, we decided it would be prudent to temporarily cancel the event while we did additional research to better understand how the ECW operates." Just a short time later, Panero approved of ECW's first PPV event, which took place in April of 1997.
  2226.  
  2227. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  2228.  
  2229. ~~~~~~
  2230.  
  2231. 1/4/2001 1:40:00 AM
  2232. This Day in Wrestling History 1-1
  2233.  
  2234. by Dave Meltzer
  2235.  
  2236. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  2237.  
  2238. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY FOR January 1
  2239.  
  2240. 1979 - On a New Years night spectacular at the Omni in Atlanta, Jack & Jerry Brisco defeated Dory & Terry Funk to win the Georgia tag team titles
  2241.  
  2242. 1982 - Sam Muchnick promotes his final wrestling show ever at the St. Louis Arena before the largest sports crowd ever in the building--19,819 fans,headlined by Ric Flair retaining the NWA title beating Dusty Rhodes in a two out of three fall match. Muchnick, who would probably rank very high on any list of the greatest wrestilng promoters who ever lived, had begun promoting St. Louis in the 1940s, and had averaged 8,000 paid attendance per show over four decades of promotion in the same city, and had made St. Louis the city that was known as the wrestling capital of North America. Muchnick was also the main power and glue that made the National Wrestling Alliance the largest conglomerate of different promotions ever in the pro wrestling industry as NWA President for much of the 50s and 60s. Most people credit the decline and ultimate destruction of the NWA to Muchnick being forced out of the Presidency in a power play in the mid-70s, which allowed the different promoters more leeway to do more angles that ultimately many would say killed the credibility of the title, since most point the glory days of the belt as the period in the early 70s when Muchnick booked champions Dory Funk Jr. and Jack Brisco. Muchnick's biggest drawing card, Dick the Bruiser, won the Missouri State title from Ken Patera on that show, while long-time booker and former world champion Pat O'Connor also had his retirement match beating Bruiser Bob Sweetan. It was just two years later that the St. Louis Wrestling Club, which under Muchnick was considered the most stable promotion in the country, had destructed from in-fighting among the various principles, Bob Geigel, Verne Gagne, Larry Matysik, Harley Race and O'Connor, who were left in charge but there was no final boss. Ultimately, Vince McMahon in late 1983 was able to get what was Muchnick's traditional TV outlet on KPLR-TV, and his first major promotional conquest in his expansion was stealing the existing TV time and running opposition to what was considered the NWA's flagship promotion. . . In one of the most famous matches of the era, Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) captured the WWF junior heavyweight title that Tatsumi Fujinami had vacated to both go heavyweight, and to give Sayama the spotlight as junior heavyweight champion, beating Dynamite Kid in a bout to determine the vacant title. Over the next few months, Sayama, at 165 pounds, changed the face of wrestling in Japan as no wrestler under 200 pounds had ever been taken as a serious star up to that point, and his stardom with Kid eventually paved the way to opening up the world of lighter weight wrestlers in the United States more than a decade later.
  2243. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  2244.  
  2245. ~~~
  2246.  
  2247.  
  2248. 1/3/2001 8:20:00 PM
  2249. Legends together in TJ; Who's the WWF champ?
  2250.  
  2251. by Dave Meltzer
  2252.  
  2253. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  2254.  
  2255. Benjamin Mora will be presenting a legends quartet on top for the first time ever together in one ring this Friday in Tijuana, with Mil Mascaras, Mexico's biggest star of the 70s, Perro Aguayo, the most popular wrestler in the country in recent years, El Hijo del Santo and Tijuana's most famous international product, Rey Misterio Jr. joining forces in the main event. The group will face Dr. Wagner Jr., Cien Caras (Mil Mascaras' top 70s rival) & El Hijo del Diablo (Santo's biggest Northern Mexico rival) & Juventud Guerrera (Misterio Jr's long-time rival). Talk about bringing wrestlers of different eras together.
  2256. The co-feature on the show is Villano III & Brazo de Plata vs. Mascara Ano 2000 & Universo 2000. (thanks to Robert Bihari)
  2257.  
  2258.  
  2259.  
  2260. Some other notes:
  2261.  
  2262. *We should have an interview with Al Snow up on the site tomorrow night
  2263. *In the Orange Bowl Parade, the Miami Herald listed DDP, who was on one of the floats, as the current WWF champion.
  2264. *Hector Garza will face Zandokan in a hair vs. hair match to headline AAA's return to Tijuana on 1/26.
  2265.  
  2266. ~~~~
  2267.  
  2268. 1/2/2001 4:20:00 PM
  2269. This Day in Wrestling History 1-2
  2270.  
  2271. by Dave Meltzer
  2272.  
  2273. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  2274.  
  2275. During the week hopefully we'll catch up on some of the missing days.
  2276.  
  2277. TODAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY
  2278.  
  2279. 1897 - Probably the single biggest long-term drawing card in pro wrestling history before the advent of television, Jimmy Londos, was born Chris Theopelos in Greece. Londos was huge in the late 1920s and 1930s and still drew around the world well into the 1950s, holding attendance records at the time in various countries. A 1934 match in Chicago with Strangler Lewis which drew 35,000 fans to Wrigley Field in Chicago set a record $95,000 house which stood for 18 years until the Lou Thesz vs. Baron Leone match in Hollywood, CA.
  2280.  
  2281. 1934 - This sounds so funny today. The New York State Athletic commission began an investigation into the practices of promoters Rudy Miller, Jack Curley, Toods Mondt and Tom Packs as well as wrestlers Jimmy Londos and Dick Shikat on the charges that they were fixing outcomes of pro wrestling matches. Pro wrestling had been 99% or more worked for at least 20 years, and contrary to what old-timers would like you to believe, that was hardly secretive knowledge as all the old newspaper stories pretty well were written tongue in cheek as it pertained to the legitimacy of the matches, although the big matches in that era were still covered as major sporting events.
  2282.  
  2283. 1990 - Arn Anderson defeated the Great Muta at a TV taping in Gainesville, GA to win the WCW TV title.
  2284.  
  2285. 1992 - On John Arezzi's "Pro Wrestling Spotlight" radio show in Long Island, NY, former wrestlers David Shults and Superstar Billy Graham talked openly about the subject of anabolic steroids in pro wrestling. Shults said that without steroids, neither he, Graham or Hulk Hogan would have achieved the success they had in wrestling, said that Hogan had used excessive amounts of steroids for many years, and that he had injected Hogan with steroids. Graham said that in 1987 when the WWF began testing wrestlers for cocaine, that some wrestlers would travel with clean urine in their luggage and would use it when a surprise test was called. Shults claimed at one time that he had purchased steroids from Hogan. Several weeks later, the floodgates were opened with media from the Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union and New York Post in particular writing huge stories on the subject. There had already been pressure on the WWF dating back to the trial of Dr. George Zahorian the previous summer and they had just begun steroid testing of wrestlers, although at this point no wrestlers had been suspended even though there had been numerous test failures as WWF claimed they would punish people whose level of steroids didn't decrease. Eventually, by late February, Vince McMahon and Hogan agreed that Hogan should take some time off from wrestling to let the controversy die, and Hogan took about one year off, teasing his Wrestlemania match that year with Sid Vicious would be his retirement match.
  2286.  
  2287. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  2288.  
  2289. ~~~~
  2290.  
  2291. 1/3/2001 3:34:00 PM
  2292. This Day in Wrestling History 1-3
  2293.  
  2294. by Dave Meltzer
  2295.  
  2296. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  2297.  
  2298. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY
  2299.  
  2300. 1968 - In the biggest head-to-head wrestling war in the history of Japanese television, TBS in Japan aired an International Wrestling Enterprises show headlined by Lou Thesz vs. Danny Hodge and Nippon TV aired the JWA promotion show headlined by Giant Baba vs. The Crusher for the International heavyweight title. Both groups and wrestling itself wound up big winners, as Baba vs. Crusher drew an amazing 48.0 rating while Thesz vs. Hodge did a 26.0 rating. That meant that virtually everyone watching television in Japan on this night were watching one or the other wrestling match.
  2301.  
  2302. 1970 - Andre Roussimoff, later to become famous years later under the name Andre the Giant, made his Japanese pro wrestling debut for the old IWE promotion under the name Monster Roussimoff. IWE was affiliated with the old AWA and Verne Gagne, who came to Japan to defend his AWA title later in the tour, took one look at Andre and saw dollar signs, but not where you'd think. Gagne's idea was to market Andre as a boxer, since at the time there was huge money in heavyweight boxing and not so much in pro wrestling, as the elusive "Great White Hope" for a match with Muhammad Ali. As it turned out, that idea never went very far.
  2303.  
  2304. 1977 - In a match that actually never took place (thereby allowing Fritz to lose the title without doing a job), it was announced that newcomer Bruiser Brody had defeated Fritz Von Erich in Atlanta to win the American heavyweight title, thereby starting the Fritz vs. Brody feud that led to Brody's legendary status in Texas, and ultimately Japan as well, since it was Fritz' influence that got Baba to put Brody over so strongly when he debuted a few years later.
  2305.  
  2306. 1985 - An All Japan mid-card junior heavyweight sadly announced his retirement at a very young age because his bad knees wouldn't allow him to wrestle any longer. His name? Atsushi Onita.
  2307.  
  2308. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  2309.  
  2310. ~~~~~
  2311.  
  2312. 1/4/2001 4:07:00 PM
  2313. This Day in Wrestling History 1-4 and it's a biggie; featuring a second update from 1998 you won't want to forget
  2314.  
  2315. by Dave Meltzer
  2316.  
  2317. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  2318.  
  2319. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTILNG HISTORY for January 4 (and as you can imagine, it's a big one)
  2320.  
  2321. 1929 - Gus Sonnenberg, a college football star from Dartmouth became the new big thing in wrestling through implementation of the flying shoulder tackle. To go all the way with him, Ed "Strangler" Lewis, who was almost universally recognized by this point as the world heavyweight champion, put Sonnenberg's flying tackles over, was knocked out of the ring and counted out to lose the title in Boston for promoter Paul Bowser. At the time it seemed like a great move to put the belt on a younger man who has the game's hottest new draw, but as history showed, the Sonnenberg title reign was filled with problems.
  2322.  
  2323. 1980 - 18-year-old Rimi Yokota captured her first pro wrestling championship, the Japanese jr. title over Chino Sato. Soon to be known as Jaguar Yokota, she was one of the most influential women in wrestling history as her ability at a wide range of styles from suplexes to mat wrestling to Lucha Libre made her easily the greatest in-ring performer womens wrestling would ever see, and spawned a generation of Crush Gals, Manami Toyotas, Bull Nakanos, Kyoko Inoues and more which for years made the All Japan womens' promotion a huge success both in ring and a Saturday afternoon TV phenomenon.
  2324.  
  2325. 1988 - Steve Williams was arrested at the Detroit airport enroute on a tour to Japan in possession of three grams of cocaine, 22 grams of marijuana, two grams of psilocybin, 241 steroid tablets and 28 mililetres of injectable steroids. He was released on $25,000 bail. Williams, who was working for New Japan and Jim Crockett Promotions at the time, didn't lose either job, although the Crockett job was in great jeopardy due to the publicity.
  2326.  
  2327. 1991 - A proposed deal where Atlanta wrestling TV personality Joe Pedecino would buy Jerry Jarrett's USWA promotion and turn it into a national touring company fell through when Jarrett got tired of waiting for Pedecino to come up with the money for the purchase. Pedecino had a Nigerian backer, who apparently promised him $25 million to get into the big game, but never came up with the money, including the $3.4 million he was going to pay to Jarrett for the territory and TV syndication.
  2328.  
  2329. 1992 - New Japan ran on January 4th at the Tokyo Dome for the first time, in what became an annual tradition, drawing a turnaway crowd of 60,000 fans for a show in conjunction with WCW. Among the results saw Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko over Michiyoshi Ohara & Shiro Koshinaka, Dusty & Dustin Rhodes beat Masa Saito & Kim Duk, Tony Halme (now a heavyweight boxer) pinned Scott Norton in a terrible match, Shinya Hashimoto pinned Bill Kazmaier (now on Met-RX commercials in the U.S.), Big Van Vader went to a double count out with El Gigante, Then Senator Antonio Inoki beat future Senator Hiroshi Hase, Sting & Great Muta as a tag team beat The Steiner Brothers, Lex Luger retained the WCW heavyweight title pinning Masahiro Chono after a low blow and Riki Choshu pinned Tatsumi Fujinami to win the IWGP heavyweight title. Sting & Muta vs. Steiners saved the show as there were a lot of bad matches.
  2330.  
  2331. 1993 - New Japan sold out the Tokyo Dome with an announced 63,500 fans, all tickets gone one week in advance for one of the best Dome shows in history. With the exception of one match, Ron Simmons vs. Tony Halme, every match on the show was good. Among matches that were ***1/2 or better were an eight-man Skinheads vs. Raging Staff feud, the first ever meeting of Jushin Liger vs. Ultimo Dragon for the IWGP jr. title (actually slightly disappointing as Dragon was nervous in what was the biggest match up to that point of his career), Sting beat Hase (who carried him great), Muto beat Chono in a match which unified both the NWA and IWGP heavyweight titles in a super match, The Hell Raisers (Road Warrior Hawk & Kensuke Sasaki) kept the IWGP tag titles going to a double count out with the Steiner Brothers (Steiners refused to do the job, claiming they had already lost two matches in Japan the previous November and refused to lose three in a row) in an excellent match but fans hated the finish, Fujinami beat Takashi Ishikawa in an interpromotional match and main event saw Tenryu beat Choshu in 18:14. Muto vs. Chono was the best match. . . On the same day, Hulk Hogan did a TV interview on The Nashville Network, before they had pop, which was his first public interview since disappearing in wake of the steroid scandal. He blamed time constraints on the Arsenio Hall show for his problems (where he denied using steroids except for three times in his life, I'm not sure how time constraints can be blamed for that statement) when it came out he was lying on the show. Hogan said that he planned to admit to more usage of steroids but he ran out of time. Hogan blamed his usage of steroids on the medical profession saying they were okay to use, and claimed he had stopped using them when he found out they were dangerous. Hey, by the way, if one person believes that line, don't bother e-mailing me. Hogan claimed the Rock & Wrestling Connection was his idea, not Vince McMahon's, that he wanted to return to wrestling, but in Japan, not the United States, and that he had to convince Vince McMahon to allow wrestlers to have entrance music when McMahon was against it. He claimed that he was responsible for preventing many people from using steroids. Hogan claimed the WWF grossed $1.7 billion per year (real figure at that point in time was probably in the $100 million range). He claimed that if the NFL players had to take the same steroid tests as WWF wrestlers, that "there wouldn't be anybody left on the field." Amidst all those silly statements, where Hogan got the most heat in wrestling was for probably the only honest thing he said in the entire interview, saying wrestilng was "an exhibition. It's acting, charisma and good athletes. Its a show. A lot of the wrestlers are friends. If you wan tt call it exposing the business, call it whatever you want. I call it good business." Ironically, at the time, those statements were considered a sin.
  2332.  
  2333. 1994 - The first ever non-sellout on January 4 at the Dome took place with a crowd estimated at more than 50,000 highlighted by Inoki vs. Tenryu and Steiners vs. Hase & Muto matches. Jushin Liger pinned the latest incarnation of Tiger Mask with a shooting star press. Mask unmasked, revealing himself, as everyone knew,as Koji Kanemoto. The Hell Raisers regained the IWGP tag titles from the Jurassic Powers, Scott Norton & Hercules (Ray Fernandez) in a terrible match. Steiners beat Hase & Muto. Choshu, in his first match back after surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon, beat Yoshiaki Fujiwara in a disappointing match. Hashimoto retained the IWGP title pinning Chono in 28:00 of a match that was disappointing. Tenryu beat Inoki via pinfall, making him the first wrestler in modern history to score pins on both Inoki and Baba (some guys in the 60s did it before Baba & Inoki reached superstardom).
  2334.  
  2335. 1995 - A five-and-a-half hour Tokyo Dome show was said to be average, highlighted by IWGP tag champs Hase & Muto beating the Steiners in 25:12 and IWGP champ Hashimoto pinning Sasaki in the main event, both of which were very good matches. The show drew a sellout 62,500 fans paying $4.8 million, which was the largest gate up to that point in the history of pro wrestling. The show also included a horrible martial arts tournament featuring three of the worst matches of the year, Sting over Tony Palmore (which was worst match of the year), Inoki over Gerard Gordeau and finally Inoki over Sting.
  2336.  
  2337. 1996 - Keiji Muto and Nobuhiko Takada officially went into the record books as the biggest drawing feud in wrestling history with their second consecutive Doe sellout, ending with Takada winning the IWGP title with an armbar submission in:51 before 64,000 fans paying $5.5 million and a television audience of about 14 million viewers. But the show stealer was the final legendary match of the career of Inoki, as he made Vader via armbar submission in 14:16 of what may have been, at the age of 52, the greatest match of Inoki's career. Surprisingly, Muto vs. Takada drew a larger rating than Inoki vs. Vader. In hindsight, the opener on the show is really interesting today since it was Yuji Nagata & Shinjiro Otani & Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kendo Ka Shin) over Kazushi Sakuraba & Kenichi Yamamoto (who just challenged Pat Miletich for the UFC lightweight title a few weeks ago) & Hiromitsu Kanehara (who is going to the finals of the RINGS tournament next month). Liger retained the IWGP jr. title over Kanemoto in a fantastic match. An interpromotional match with Kodo Fuyuki of WAR and Yoji Anjoh of UWFI was a total disaster. Sasaki retained the WCW United States title over Hase, Choshu destroyed Masahito Kakihara in a needless destruction and Hashimoto pinned Kazuo Yamazaki.
  2338.  
  2339. 1997 - A weak line-up still drew a sellout 62,500 to the Dome. Hashimoto retained the IWGP title pinning Choshu in 18:04, coming off Choshu's win in the IWGP tournament and a pin on Hashimoto. In their final glory as a team, Fujinami & Kengo Kimura, a top team of the 80s, reunited to win the IWGP tag titles from Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan. In an Americanized bad match, Power Warrior (Sasaki) pinned Great Muta. Jushin Liger captured eight of Ultimo Dragon's ten titles (Dragon's WCW cruiserweight and NWA middleweight titles weren't at stake) in a great match and Inoki beat Willie Williams in a rematch 17 years in the making of an awful match. Two interesting prelim matches saw Otani beat Yoshihiro Tajiri, making his New Japan debut in one of the better matches on the show, and Super Liger, who was Chris Jericho, beat Kanemoto. The idea was to build to a Liger vs. Super Liger feud, but Jericho under the mask didn't get over, and the gimmick was dropped and never heard from again. In fact, the match was never even allowed to air on television. . . The World Wrestling Federation debuted a new show, trying to recreate the success of the original Raw, for late night Saturday night called "Shotgun Saturday Night," an attempt to combine WWF wrestling with a New York night club feel. The show, probably most remembered for The Head Bangers doing a Nuns gimmick and Terri Runnels as Marlena, taking off her top (her back was to the camera and she was actually covered but the idea was she wasn't as Sultan, now Rikishi, who the gimmick was had never been with a woman in his life, was so stunned he lost to Goldust in spot right out of a really bad wrestling movie from a few years earlier)only lasted a few months before it was discarded. . . A match with Kevin Nash & Scott Hall vs. Nasty Boys got out of hand when Jerry Sags, who had been out of action with a concussion and told Hall & Nash to avoid hitting him with a chair to the head, was hit in the head with a thrown chair by Hall. Sags lost his temper and attacked Hall, beating him to the point where Hall needed oral surgery to repair the damage. Sags never wrestled again, as due to the multiple concussions he was forced to retire and later sued both Hall and WCW.
  2340.  
  2341. 1998 - Riki Choshu retired before a sellout 65,000 fans paying $6 million, wrestilng five lackluster matches, beating Kazuyuki Fujita (now a Pride star), Yutaka Yoshie, Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Liger, but losing to Takashi Iizuka. Main event saw Sasaki pin Muto in 25:18 to retain the IWGP title. Interesting undercard matches included Otani keeping the IWGP jr. title over Dragon and newcomer Don Frye beating Naoya Ogawa in the days before Inoki made him unbeatable.
  2342.  
  2343. 1999 - Hashimoto and Ogawa didn't work a shoot, but in fact, shot a work to begin their big money program on a show that drew a packed house of 62,500 paying $5.3 million. Basically Ogawa beat the hell out of Hashimoto before the match was stopped with Hashimoto blown up on the ramp and left for dead, with no actual finish ruled. Satoshi Kojima & Tenzan won the IWGP tag titles over Tenryu & Koshinaka. Fans had trouble getting into pro wrestling since they followed the amazing Hashimoto-Ogawa scene. Main event, which was horrible, saw Muto retain the IWGP title beating Norton with a figure four leglock. Kendo Ka Shin & Dr. Wagner Jr. won the IWGP jr. tag titles over Otani & Takaiwa. Liger retained the IWGP jr. title over Kanemoto in 23:11 after a top rope brainbuster. In a horrible match, Sasaki beat Atsushi Onita via DQ when Onita threw fire. . . Everyone think about this--this was only two years ago. WCW ran a Nitro at the Georgia Dome, drawing 38,809 fans, of which 34,788 were paid, and drew the largest gate in company history, $930,735. This was the show where Hulk Hogan, who announced his retirement six weeks earlier (as part of an elaborate swerve on the boys worked by Hogan, Kevin Nash and Eric Bischoff), returned, and as part of the deal where Nash would book and get to be the first to beat Goldberg (one week earlier), in return, Hogan would get the title, but Nash wouldn't have to do a job for him. So they did the finish where Hogan gave Nash the one finger touch, Nash went down, and Hogan got the title. I mean, think of the heel heat? Was that brilliant or what? And now today, two years later, it was real clever now, wasn't it? It would probably take a full 18 page Observer to list all the reasons that show was a disaster. This was also the night where the title change that was taped a few nights earlier when Mick Foley captured his first WWF title from The Rock aired. This led to yet another of the memorable moments on Nitro, when Bischoff told Tony Schiavone to say that Raw was taped, that Foley would be winning the title so fans shouldn't switch channels. So WCW presented this TV show which was beyond awful, they told fans a world title was changing on Raw, and they expected people not to switch channels? Bischoff then told Schiavone, which ruined Schiavone's rep with fans who don't understand the wrestling industry, to knock Foley and laugh about how stupid it was to put the title on him, saying "that'll put butts in the seat." Let's see who since that period of time drew more revenue, Foley or Hogan or Nash? WWF, which did commentary live, shot back after hearing what was being said, saying they weren't going to present a main event that starts two minutes before the show goes off the air and consists of nothing but walking and talking. The final score of the night was that Raw set its all-time record rating up to that point with a 5.76 rating. Nitro was still healthy at this point doing a 4.96, roughly double what it is doing just two years later. The combined viewership of the two shows was nearly 12 million. The head-to-head world title switches saw the taped Rock vs. Mankind to a 5.9 to the live Hogan vs. Nash fiasco doing a 4.6, although WCW did get some satisfaction as the post-match Goldberg run-in after the fact on Nitro did an amazing 6.5, while an Austin run-in after Foley's title win dropped Raw all the way to a 5.1. From the minute-by-minute numbers, right after Schiavone told viewers there would be a title change on Raw so not to switch channels, about 375,000 homes switched channels--to Raw.
  2344.  
  2345. 2000 - A sellout announced at 63,500 came to a show which included WCW talent Chris Benoit, Rick Steiner and Randy Savage, as well as officials J.J. Dillon and Paul Orndorff at ringside. Dillon, seeing the size of the crowd and the heat in the Hashimoto & Iizuka vs. Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami match, which was probably the most heated match of last year but didn't get match of the year consideration because it didn't fit into what a wrestling match is supposed to look like (which is actually why it got over), came back to the States and thought the Vince Russo direction was all wrong, which led to what happened in WCW less than two weeks later. Sasaki pinned Tenryu in 14:43 to win the IWGP title in the main event, and Chono beat Muto in 25:00 with the STF in the top matches. Steiner beat Savage in a terrible match. Yamazaki retired after a match losing to Nagata, which brought both Akira Maeda, Nobuhiko Takada, Kanehara and even Kiyoshi Tamura to the show. Benoit was pinned by Tenzan in a very good match. In other title matches, Liger kept the IWGP jr. over Kanemoto in their 3:56 match and Otani & Takaiwa kept the tag titles over Minoru Tanaka & Ka Shin. The idea was to build up Liger & Benoit vs. Otani & Takaiwa for a program, but Benoit was gone to the WWF after the debacle two weeks later. Bill Goldberg was set to debut on this show, but he was injured putting hie elbow through the car window.
  2346.  
  2347.  
  2348. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  2349.  
  2350. ~~~~~~
  2351.  
  2352.  
  2353. 1/9/2001 3:35:00 AM
  2354. This Day in Wrestling History for 1-5 and 1-9
  2355.  
  2356. by Dave Meltzer
  2357.  
  2358. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  2359.  
  2360. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY for January 5
  2361.  
  2362. 1974 - The Valiant Brothers, Jimmy & Johnny, before hitting it big in Madison Square Garden, captured the WWA tag team titles in Detroit from the formidable team of Dick the Bruiser & Bruno Sammartino.
  2363.  
  2364. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY for January 9
  2365.  
  2366. 1931 - Big Wayne Munn, the former football star, failed boxer and world heavyweight champion pro wrestler passed away at the age of 35, six years and one day after his famous victory over Strangler Lewis which precipitated one of the most famous years for the title since it involved numerous deals and double-crosses.
  2367.  
  2368. 1959 - Pat O'Connor defeated Dick Hutton in St. Louis to win the NWA world heavyweight championship. Hutton, who had won the title from Lou Thesz, was the worst drawing champion in the history of the NWA went it was the powerhouse organization, and during that time period, the alliance lost a lot of its power. Hutton, who was probably the best college heavyweight wrestler of his era, was hand picked by Thesz to be champion because he wanted the title to maintain what he believed would be the credibility he gave it. O'Connor was considered at this point an incredible worker, and his title run set up his feud with Buddy Rogers, which turned out to be, up until this point in time, the biggest money drawing feud in American pro wrestling history.
  2369.  
  2370. 1962 - The masked Mr. M, who was Big Bill Miller, captured the AWA world heavyweight championship beating Verne Gagne in Minneapolis. Of what would be considered major versions of the world heavyweight title, this was the first time in history that a masked man ever held the title, as Dick Beyer as The Destroyer's first world title win was seven months later in Los Angeles. Miller, as Dr. X, had held the smaller Omaha version of the title.
  2371.  
  2372. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  2373.  
  2374. ~~~~
  2375.  
  2376.  
  2377. 1/6/2001 6:17:00 PM
  2378. This Day in Wrestling History 1-6
  2379.  
  2380. by Dave Meltzer
  2381.  
  2382. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  2383.  
  2384. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY for January 6
  2385.  
  2386. 1953 - Paul Gomez, the 1949 Mr. California makes his pro debut under the name Pepper Gomez in El Paso, TX under the tutelage of Mexican wrestling legend Miguel "Blackie" Guzman. Gomez blew out his knee in his first match. Gomez ended up being a huge star, particularly in Texas and California as "the man with the cast iron stomach." He still holds the record holding the Texas heavyweight title on 12 occasions between 1955 and 1963, and his 1963 match with Ray Stevens still holds the record for the largest sports crowd ever in the San Francisco Cow Palace.
  2387.  
  2388. 1967 - "Pretty Boy" Larry Hennig & "Handsome" Harley Race regained the AWA world tag team titles from Dick the Bruiser & The Crusher at the old Minneapolis Auditorium.
  2389.  
  2390. 1973 - Ray Stevens & Nick Bockwinkel regained the AWA tag titles from Verne Gagne & Billy Robinson, the top two singles stars in the company, after a reign of only one week.
  2391.  
  2392. 1983 - Carlos Colon, who held the recognized world heavyweight title from the WWC, faced Ric Flair, who held the recognized world title of the NWA, to create an undisputed title known as the Universal title which Colon won, however Flair returned to the United States still recognized as world champion.
  2393. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  2394.  
  2395. ~~~~~
  2396.  
  2397.  
  2398. 1/8/2001 1:05:00 AM
  2399. This Day in Wrestling History 1-7
  2400.  
  2401. by Dave Meltzer
  2402.  
  2403. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  2404.  
  2405. ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY for January 7
  2406.  
  2407. 1961 - Don Leo Jonathan beat the masked Dr. X (Big Bill Miller) to win the Omaha version of what would later be the AWA title
  2408.  
  2409. 1966 - After holding American national and world recognized version of the world heavyweight title on and off for nearly three decades, it was Lou Thesz final night as NWA world heavyweight champion, dropping the belt to Gene Kiniski at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. Thesz and NWA President Sam Muchnick had their final split (although years later the two became best of friends again) over Thesz being uncooperative regarding a plan to unify the NWA and WWWF titles with Bruno Sammartino as champion. Ironically, Sammartino himself didn't want both belts either when he realized how taxing the road schedule would be.
  2410.  
  2411. 1979 - A new tag team called the Fabulous Freebirds, consisting of 17-year-old Terry Gordy and 19-year-old Michael Hayes, captured the Mid American tag team titles in Chattanooga for the Nashville-based promotion run by Nick Gulas, from The Jet Set, consisting of Bobby Eaton, and the world's worst wrestler, George Gulas.
  2412.  
  2413. 1990 - One of the greatest sports legends of the 20th century, Bronko Nagurski, passed away at the age of 81. Nagurski was a college and pro football star at the University of Minnesota and later with the Chicago Bears. Like a lot of pro football players of the era, he did a little bit of pro wrestling. When he realized that the top wrestlers of the era, like Lou Thesz, made more than double the money he made as the biggest star in the NFL (my how times have changed), he became the biggest name football player in history to quit the NFL at their peak to go full-time in wrestling. Because of his name from football, he immediately became the biggest star in the pro wrestling world, holding the world title on several occasions. He did several years later go back to football, but he was past his prime, and ended up back in wrestling. He was probably the top box office attraction in pro wrestling during the 40s, but when television ushered in new stars, Nagurski, who was not very charismatic on television, faded from the scene although he continued to wrestle until around 1960. Nagurski was also never fond of wrestling and while a tough guy, he was never considered a skilled performer but simply a superstar athlete who used his fame to draw fans to wrestling. Last year, he was voted as the No. 1 sports star of the century that came from Minnesota. He was also the hero of another football player who became a huge wrestling star, Leo Nomellini.
  2414.  
  2415. 1992 - Jumbo Tsuruta, who passed away last year, completed a sweep of all the Japanese Wrestler of the Year awards with a major win in the 1991 Wrestler of the Year balloting. Tsuruta lost one of the closest races in history the previous year for the same award to Ric Flair, who finished second with Jushin Liger third, Keiji Muto fourth, followed by Bull Nakano, Mitsuharu Misawa, Atsushi Onita, Hulk Hogan, Cactus Jack and Lex Luger. . . After three years as the top executive in WCW, Jim Herd was forced out by long-time friend Jack Petrik after a power play. Petrik had, behind Herd's back, hired Dusty Rhodes from the WWF to take over as booker. Herd, who had problems with Rhodes, resulting in him leaving the company for the WWF, didn't want Rhodes back and told Petrik he refused to hire Rhodes as booker. To Herd's surprise, Petrik asked for Herd's resignation. Herd was replaced as top executive by Kip Allen Frey, 38, a TBS attorney who had virtually no wrestling background, and only lasted a few months in the position before it was given to Bill Watts. WCW lost a total of $19 million in the 37 months that Herd was in charge, and his stock as a leader plummeted when Ric Flair left the company after problems with Herd for the WWF, who at the end also had major problems with Rhodes, Jim Ross and Terry Allen. Herd did agree that losing Flair was the biggest mistake he made while in charge.
  2416.  
  2417. 2000 - Gary Albright passed away of a heart attack suffered during a match on an independent show in Hazelton, PA performing for his father-in-law, Afa Anoai at the age of 36. Albright was a major star in Japan, where he once held the UWFI version of the world heavyweight championship in 1992 and was one of the top amateur wrestlers of the early 80s including 1982 freestyle national champion, and second place in the World teenage freestyle champion in 1983. He was also the Wrestling Observer's pro wrestling rookie of the year in 1988 while working for Stampede Wrestling.
  2418. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  2419.  
  2420. ~~~~~
  2421.  
  2422. 1/8/2001 3:25:00 AM
  2423. This Day in Wrestling History 1-8
  2424.  
  2425. by Dave Meltzer
  2426.  
  2427. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  2428.  
  2429. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY for January 8
  2430.  
  2431. 1925 - University of Minnesota football star Big Wayne Munn, a giant by the standards of the time, was brought into pro wrestling after failing as a boxing attraction, by the Gold Dust Trio with the idea of making him world champion as a big box office draw due to his size. the first order of business was having Strangler Lewis lose the world heavyweight title to him, which he most willingly did, but with the gimmick of being thrown over the top rope and being injured and counted out. Lewis took the belt itself with the idea that both men would defend their title claims to build for a rematch in May. But by the time May came, everything was a mess when promoter Tony Stecher convinced old Stanislaus Zbyszko to shoot on Munn in a title match in April, which he did, to capture the title, and he then had Zbyszko agree to drop the title to his brother Joe Stecher, taking the world title away from possession of the Gold Dust Trio and the idea that was going to lead to strengthening their power, ended up weakening it because Munn couldn't defend himself when a real wrestler came after him.
  2432.  
  2433. 1937 - Frank Gotch's original trainer, and the man considered the greatest wrestler by legend at the turn of the century, Martin "Farmer" Burns passed away at the age of 75. Burns held the recognized American heavyweight title, despite being only 175 pounds, between 1895 and 1897.
  2434.  
  2435. 1968 - One of the greatest female athletes ever to go into pro wrestling, Keiko Nakano was born. As Bull Nakano, she was easily the best working large woman in the history of pro wrestling, and during her career held world titles not only in Japan, but also in the United States (WWF womens title) and Mexico. Her big run was in the early 90s when she held the WWWA belt for nearly three straight years. She is now a competition golfer after injuries forced her out of wrestling.
  2436.  
  2437. 1977 - One of the brightest newcomers in pro wrestling, 19-year-old Gino Hernandez from Houston, went to the Detroit territory and captured the U.S. title from Don Kent. Hernandez, largely due to drug problems, never lived up to his promise as a wrestler.
  2438.  
  2439. 1996 - The Monday Night Wars got way out there when the WWF did a sketch alluding to the idea that Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage were so large because WCW didn't have a steroid policy. Eric Bischoff publicly defended the company's policy by stating that three current WWF headliners had failed steroid tests while they worked in WCW. What Bischoff failed to state was that none of the three were suspended after failing those tests, and that another WWF headliner at the time, Sid Eudy, walked out on a steroid test rather than take it, and after doing so, was still promised the WCW heavyweight title in 1993 (which didn't happen because of the Arn Anderson incident). The wars were really hot at this point as on the night, Raw did a 3.0 rating to a 2.8 for Nitro.
  2440.  
  2441. 1998 - WCW Thunder debuts in Daytona Beach featuring Juventud Guerrera winning the WCW cruiserweight title from Ultimo Dragon.
  2442.  
  2443. 1999 - Bas Rutten's UFC debut sees him come from behind to knockout Tsuyoshi Kohsaka in New Orleans in a huge battle of Pancrase vs. RINGS. . . Shohei Baba underwent surgery for cancer of the bowels and it was acknowledged at this point, although the cancer was never spoken of, that Baba would never wrestle again. He died just 23 days later.
  2444. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  2445.  
  2446. ~~~~~~
  2447.  
  2448. 1/26/2001 2:56:00 AM
  2449. On This Day in Wrestling History for 1-26
  2450.  
  2451. by Dave Meltzer
  2452.  
  2453. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  2454.  
  2455. Want to make a quick note about this feature. Due to so little time, I haven't been able to do this feature on a daily basis. It was always fun doing it and again, depending on time, it may be done more often in the future.
  2456.  
  2457. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY for January 26
  2458.  
  2459. 1929 - Jonard Sjoblum was born in Minneapolis. He migrated to Florida in the early 1950s as a race car announcer and got a job doing the ring announcing for Cowboy Luttrell for pro wrestling matches in Florida. By this time, he had changed to the more easily pronounced name of Gordon Solie, and became the most famous pro wrestling announcer of the 1960s and 1970s, working for numerous promotions throughout the Southern states, best known in particular by fans in Florida, and later for the early days of pro wrestling on the SuperStation, a near three decade tradition that is in more grave danger than anyone really knows. Solie, one of the few announcers in the Observer Hall of Fame, passed away on July 28, 2000 from cancer.
  2460.  
  2461. 1960 - Joe Laurinaitis, better known as Road Warrior Animal of the dominant pro wrestling tag team of the 80s, was born. Starting out in Georgia in 1983 with partner Mike Hegstrand as Hawk, the two became instant successes in wrestling and the biggest money drawing tag team pro wrestling had ever seen up to that point in time. Their popularity was such that by 1985, they started out at $10,000 a week apiece to tour Japan for All Japan Pro Wrestling. Eventually they became the only tag team in history to hold the NWA, AWA, WWF and International tag team titles. Animal just signed on with WCW last week.
  2462.  
  2463. 1966 - In the match which to this day announcer Lance Russell says was the single greatest wrestling match he ever saw, Hiro Matsuda & Antonio Inoki defeated Eddie Graham & Sammy Steamboat (no relation to Ricky) on Memphis television to win that area's version of the NWA world tag team championship.
  2464.  
  2465. 1974 - The grandfather of The Rock, Chief Peter Maivia, won the annual Cow Palace Battle Royal, tossing out the late Ronald "Moondog" Mayne before more than 14,000 fans
  2466.  
  2467. 1984 - Knowing that his life didn't have much time left, during a documentary on the history of pro wrestling in Mexico, El Santo briefly removed his mask. He died less than two weeks later at the age of 68.
  2468.  
  2469. 1987 - In one of the most, in hindsight, callous incidents in the history of the WWF, Dynamite Kid, who was literally bedridden in Calgary after suffering what should have been a career ending back operation, was put on an airplane and flown to Tampa to make an appearance to drop the WWF tag team titles that he held. It was a different era and the WWF had kept his injury a secret on television and continued to advertise him appearing at all the arenas. He was brought to Tampa, was carried to the ring before the live crowd (of course this didn't air on television), and took one early bump and laid on his back while partner Davey Boy Smith dropped the match to the Hart Foundation, Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart, who through this historical twist of fate became WWF tag team champions for the first time. Hart & Neidhart were not considered by management to be anything more as a team than good opponents for the Bulldogs, and Vince McMahon wanted the belts on the more famous duo of Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff. As a concession for Kid agreeing to drop the titles in the ring and fly when he should have been bedridden, he chose to drop them to Hart & Neidhart instead. His pay for the evening? $50.
  2470.  
  2471. 1995 - Harley Race's career as the manager of Vader ended after suffering a broken hip and two broken wrists in an auto accident while heading to a major WCW Clash of the Champions show.
  2472.  
  2473. 1996 - El Hijo del Santo pinned Blue Panther in a best of three fall match at the Auditorio Municipal in Tijuana to capture the Mexican national middleweight title
  2474.  
  2475. 1999 - Backstage in Tucson, AZ in a match taped to air a few days later at halftime of the Super Bowl, Mankind pinned The Rock using a forklift to win the WWF title a second time. The well promoted "Halftime Heat" special drew an amazing 6.6 rating on the USA Network.
  2476.  
  2477. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  2478.  
  2479.  
  2480.  
  2481. ~~~~
  2482.  
  2483. 1/27/2001 5:12:00 PM
  2484. This Day in Wrestling History for 1-27
  2485.  
  2486. by Dave Meltzer
  2487.  
  2488. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  2489.  
  2490. Two days in a row
  2491.  
  2492. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY for January 27
  2493.  
  2494. 1904 - Frank Gotch wins his first American heavyweight championship in two straight falls over Tom Jenkins in New York, winning the second fall via disqualification for a foul
  2495.  
  2496. 1973 - The Great Mephisto (Frankie Cain) wins the annual San Francisco Cow Palace Battle Royal before a sellout of more than 14,000 fans by pinning Haystacks Calhoun in the finals. . .The Sheik captured the U.S. heavyweight title at Detroit's Cobo Hall for a fourth time over Bobo Brazil
  2497.  
  2498. 1979 - Ron Starr wins the Cow Palace Battle Royal ever promoted by Roy Shire, tossing out NWA champion Harley Race in the finals to set up a championship match later in the year.
  2499.  
  2500. 1981 - Roddy Piper pins Ric Flair in Raleigh, NC at Dorton Arena to capture the United States heavyweight title
  2501.  
  2502. 1993 - Andre Rene Roussimoff, better known as Andre the Giant, passed away while in France after his father's funeral at the age of 46. Andre, billed at 7-4 and 500 pounds, was the biggest attraction in pro wrestling during the late 70s as a world traveler and at the time of his death still held the record for both drawing the largest recorded crowd (78,000 at the Pontiac Silverdome for Wrestlemania III) and highest buy rate (more than 8.0 percent), the latter a figure that will almost certainly never be approached again, for his match with Hulk Hogan. Andre was really closer to 6-9 or 6-10, but did weigh legitimately 515 pounds at the time of his death. He had last wrestled less than two months earlier in Japan. Without question, Andre was one of the two or three most famous wrestlers world wide who ever lived.
  2503.  
  2504. 1996 - Raven defeats Sandman to win the ECW title at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia
  2505.  
  2506. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  2507.  
  2508. ~~~~~
  2509.  
  2510.  
  2511. 1/28/2001 5:01:00 PM
  2512. This Day in Wrestling History for 1-28
  2513.  
  2514. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  2515.  
  2516. ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY for January 28
  2517.  
  2518. 1937 - Mildred Burke defeated Clara Mortenson in Chattanooga for what was billed as the World's Women's wrestling championship. Burke, real name Mildred Bliss, became the biggest womens wrestling star in the history of American wrestling (with all due respect to Moolah, who lasted forever, Burke from all accounts was a better wrestler at a time when womens wrestling was far bigger). Burke, who was married to Billy Wolfe, who promoted and booked women wrestlers around the country, held the title on-and-off for most of the next 17 years, refusing to ever drop it once she became established as the biggest star in womens wrestling. In her heyday, Burke was the highest paid female athlete in the United States and posters of her doing a double bicep shot were legendary in the 40s and 50s.
  2519.  
  2520. 1961 - Bobo Brazil defeated Dick the Bruiser to win the U.S. title in Detroit
  2521.  
  2522. 1992 - Stan Hansen, who had his retirement ceremony earlier today, defeated Jumbo Tsuruta to win the Triple Crown in Tokyo
  2523.  
  2524. 1996 - Frank Shamrock captured his first pro championship winning the King of Pancrase title from Minoru Suzuki in Yokohama in a match which aired later as an American PPV via submission. The win was considered an upset at the time, however Suzuki's career by this point was on the decline and Shamrock's career took off two years later after leaving Pancrase for UFC.
  2525.  
  2526. [ Headlines ][ Archives ][ Search ]
  2527.  
  2528. ~~~
  2529.  
  2530. 2000: Nov
  2531. Dec
  2532.  
  2533.  
  2534. 2001: Jan
  2535.  
  2536. Feb
  2537.  
  2538. Mar
  2539.  
  2540. Apr
  2541.  
  2542. May
  2543.  
  2544. Jun
  2545.  
  2546. 2/28/2001 11:49:00 PM
  2547. Update on Lawler, WWF thoughts on GMS and Memphis deals
  2548.  
  2549. 2/28/2001 7:55:00 PM
  2550. More on Raw vs. Nitro head-to-head on Monday
  2551.  
  2552. 2/28/2001 7:50:00 PM
  2553. Affiliates not concerned about XFL?; WWF gaffes; Fans throw money at wrestlers--don't worry, it's good
  2554.  
  2555. 2/28/2001 4:39:00 PM
  2556. XFL exec resigns
  2557.  
  2558. 2/28/2001 3:01:00 PM
  2559. First Wednesday update; News from around the world including Hogan, Muto, Santo and lots of indie stuff
  2560.  
  2561. 2/28/2001 2:14:00 PM
  2562. More on Lawler, Carter situation
  2563.  
  2564. 2/28/2001 2:21:00 AM
  2565. Lawler, Carter update
  2566.  
  2567. 2/28/2001 1:34:00 AM
  2568. Smackdown spoilers; More on Lawler
  2569.  
  2570. 2/27/2001 10:07:00 PM
  2571. Lawler, Kat leave WWF
  2572.  
  2573. 2/27/2001 7:27:00 PM
  2574. More on XFL ratings and NBC's response; Rey vs. Juvi meet Thursday
  2575.  
  2576. 2/27/2001 4:38:00 PM
  2577. Wrestling ratings are in; biggest match of year in Mexico
  2578.  
  2579. 2/27/2001 4:19:00 PM
  2580. More ratings, WCW notes, HHH notes
  2581.  
  2582. 2/27/2001 1:53:00 PM
  2583. First Tuesday update; XFL ratings break all-time record; Morrus; Candido
  2584.  
  2585. 2/27/2001 3:00:00 AM
  2586. Thunder spoilers; Lots of Tyson fantasy stories in Japan; Big UPW show; XFL goes for dubious record tomorrow
  2587.  
  2588. 2/26/2001 7:22:00 PM
  2589. WCW house show results from Lake Charles, LA 2-25
  2590.  
  2591. 2/26/2001 1:36:00 PM
  2592. First Monday update; XFL ratings; Mandalay Sports buys into pro wrestling business; XFL future
  2593.  
  2594. 2/26/2001 4:16:00 AM
  2595. WWF post-No Way Out notes
  2596.  
  2597. 2/25/2001 11:03:00 PM
  2598. WWF No Way Out rundown
  2599.  
  2600. 2/25/2001 7:45:00 PM
  2601. No Way Out match by match report
  2602.  
  2603. 2/25/2001 12:59:00 PM
  2604. First Sunday update; XFL overnights; notes from around the wrestling world
  2605.  
  2606. 2/25/2001 4:55:00 AM
  2607. News from all over the world
  2608.  
  2609. 2/25/2001 2:54:00 AM
  2610. ECWA Super 8 tournament review
  2611.  
  2612. 2/24/2001 11:58:00 PM
  2613. The late Gary Albright's thoughts on Japan
  2614.  
  2615. 2/23/2001 4:08:00 PM
  2616. Friday News Update
  2617.  
  2618. 2/22/2001 4:55:00 PM
  2619. Small early Thursday update
  2620.  
  2621. 2/21/2001 5:02:00 PM
  2622. Weekend wrestling ratings
  2623.  
  2624. 2/21/2001 4:31:00 PM
  2625. Final XFL ratings for the weekend
  2626.  
  2627. 2/21/2001 4:22:00 PM
  2628. Weekend ratings, at least some of them
  2629.  
  2630. 2/21/2001 3:42:00 PM
  2631. February 26 Wrestling Observer Newsletter and ordering information
  2632.  
  2633. 2/21/2001 2:12:00 PM
  2634. First Wednesday update; Weekend preview inc. RINGS and UFC, New Japan notes
  2635.  
  2636. 2/21/2001 4:20:00 AM
  2637. WWF No Way Out final line-up
  2638.  
  2639. 2/21/2001 4:11:00 AM
  2640. Japan notes; New Japan line-ups
  2641.  
  2642. 2/21/2001 4:09:00 AM
  2643. More notes from WWF TV in Kansas City
  2644.  
  2645. 2/21/2001 1:17:00 AM
  2646. Smackdown spoilers for 2-20 in Kansas City plus a ton of other results
  2647.  
  2648. 2/20/2001 4:18:00 PM
  2649. Thunder spoilers; UK TV biographies
  2650.  
  2651. 2/20/2001 1:21:00 PM
  2652. First Tuesday update; Japan PPV and awards, TV ratings, indie news
  2653.  
  2654. 2/20/2001 4:30:00 AM
  2655. WCW Greed line-up
  2656.  
  2657. 2/20/2001 4:27:00 AM
  2658. WWF St. Louis dark and Metal results; Backstage at Nitro; Sammartino on Hart; Pancrase news and ratings; Santo in San Francisco
  2659.  
  2660. 2/19/2001 1:37:00 PM
  2661. First Monday update; WCW news; More bad news for XFL
  2662.  
  2663. 2/19/2001 3:37:00 AM
  2664. SuperBrawl comments, news and results from around the world
  2665.  
  2666. 2/19/2001 12:52:00 AM
  2667. More WWF Evansville notes
  2668.  
  2669. 2/19/2001 12:49:00 AM
  2670. WWF house show report 2-18 Cape Girardeau, MO
  2671.  
  2672. 2/18/2001 11:25:00 PM
  2673. WWF house show report from Evansville, IN 2-18
  2674.  
  2675. 2/18/2001 11:14:00 PM
  2676. SuperBrawl post-show recap
  2677.  
  2678. 2/18/2001 7:57:00 PM
  2679. SuperBrawl match by match update
  2680.  
  2681. 2/18/2001 12:25:00 PM
  2682. First Sunday update; XFL ratings are in; APW vs. UPW feud heats up, Storm speaks on wrestlers' egos
  2683.  
  2684. 2/18/2001 12:23:00 PM
  2685. Inoki makes Tyson announcement; PPV results
  2686.  
  2687. 2/18/2001 4:33:00 AM
  2688. Saturday night update: New Japan PPV, XFL, News and results from around the globe
  2689.  
  2690. 2/18/2001 3:40:00 AM
  2691. WWF house show report from Cedar Falls, IA
  2692.  
  2693. 2/16/2001 8:31:00 PM
  2694. WWF news notes
  2695.  
  2696. 2/16/2001 4:20:00 PM
  2697. Smackdown final ratings; Van Dam vs. Nova; Big King of Cage main event
  2698.  
  2699. 2/16/2001 1:16:00 PM
  2700. Weekend preview and notes
  2701.  
  2702. 2/16/2001 12:51:00 PM
  2703. First Friday update, Pride matches announced, Smackdown rating, Japan big show notes
  2704.  
  2705. 2/16/2001
  2706. Japan PPV main event announcement expected
  2707.  
  2708. 2/15/2001 10:02:00 PM
  2709. WWF finances, UPW, Tiger Mask, Thunder rating, Jennifer Lopez
  2710.  
  2711. 2/15/2001 8:58:00 PM
  2712. ITV "Tonight with Trevor McDonald" pro wrestling special
  2713.  
  2714. 2/15/2001 2:31:00 PM
  2715. First Thursday update: WCW notes, Hiatt's book, Mushnick awarded, sports journalism at its worst
  2716.  
  2717. 2/15/2001 12:20:00 PM
  2718. Stu Hart To Get Order of Canada
  2719.  
  2720. 2/15/2001 11:52:00 AM
  2721. Tajiri Off to the WWF
  2722.  
  2723. 2/14/2001 3:47:00 PM
  2724. Wrestling Observer preview for February 19
  2725.  
  2726. 2/14/2001 1:51:00 PM
  2727. Detailed breakdown of XFL ratings losses
  2728.  
  2729. 2/14/2001 1:05:00 PM
  2730. First Wednesday update; Lynn, Tajiri WWF update, Sakuraba in U.S.
  2731.  
  2732. 2/14/2001 3:11:00 AM
  2733. Raw vs. Nitro head-to-head breakdowns
  2734.  
  2735. 2/14/2001 2:02:00 AM
  2736. WWF Smackdown/Heat spoilers 2-13 Nassau Coliseum
  2737.  
  2738. 2/13/2001 4:45:00 PM
  2739. Fast ratings
  2740.  
  2741. 2/13/2001 12:55:00 PM
  2742. First Tuesday update: NBC execs order XFL changes, Smackdown & XFL ratings news
  2743.  
  2744. 2/13/2001 4:49:00 AM
  2745. Thunder spoilers; Heat in NBC over XFL, Mexico notes
  2746.  
  2747. 2/12/2001 6:53:00 PM
  2748. Bischoff on WCW Shutdown
  2749.  
  2750. 2/12/2001 6:20:00 PM
  2751. Bischoff on Road Dogg
  2752.  
  2753. 2/12/2001 4:08:00 PM
  2754. Bischoff on Observer Live
  2755.  
  2756. 2/12/2001 3:23:00 PM
  2757. Tonight's scheduled matches
  2758.  
  2759. 2/12/2001 1:25:00 PM
  2760. First Monday update: XFL ratings on UPN, WCW shutdown timetable changes, Kong walks off, strongman in UFC
  2761.  
  2762. 2/12/2001 2:40:00 AM
  2763. WCW house show results from Baton Rouge 2-11
  2764.  
  2765. 2/12/2001 2:32:00 AM
  2766. WWF house show report from Boston Fleet Center 2-11
  2767.  
  2768. 2/11/2001 11:20:00 PM
  2769. XFL clarifications; Indie notes
  2770.  
  2771. 2/11/2001 9:17:00 PM
  2772. Sunday night news: Carter, Keibler and Papa Rock.
  2773.  
  2774. 2/11/2001 7:38:00 PM
  2775. Latest MMA ratings
  2776.  
  2777. 2/11/2001 2:31:00 PM
  2778. Death in Gracie family, Japan news
  2779.  
  2780. 2/11/2001 2:26:00 PM
  2781. WWF St. Paul house show report
  2782.  
  2783. 2/11/2001 12:38:00 PM
  2784. XFL ratings plummet
  2785.  
  2786. 2/11/2001 12:36:00 PM
  2787. Saturday night results inc. WWF and IWA w/Sandman and title switch
  2788.  
  2789. 2/11/2001 3:18:00 AM
  2790. Ross, Ventura and the XFL, Crazy, CZW w/many ECW names, Vince TV special, Bulldog returns
  2791.  
  2792. 2/10/2001 4:46:00 PM
  2793. More WWF personalities announcing tonight
  2794.  
  2795. 2/10/2001 2:18:00 PM
  2796. Lou Thesz on wrestling history
  2797.  
  2798. 2/10/2001 2:16:00 PM
  2799. First Saturday update; Indie & Japan notes
  2800.  
  2801. 2/10/2001 2:13:00 PM
  2802. Ross & Ventura usher in a new style of sports announcing; XFL week two
  2803.  
  2804. 2/10/2001 3:57:00 AM
  2805. Rome on backyard wrestling, Nitro matches, Surprise opponents
  2806.  
  2807. 2/9/2001 4:00:00 PM
  2808. Final Thursday ratings
  2809.  
  2810. 2/9/2001 3:49:00 PM
  2811. Ross Report notes and comments
  2812.  
  2813. 2/9/2001 1:29:00 PM
  2814. Thursday night ratings
  2815.  
  2816. 2/9/2001 1:28:00 PM
  2817. First Friday update; Weekend schedule, Rock on Leno, XFL, Puerto Rico, TCW vs. ECW
  2818.  
  2819. 2/9/2001 1:32:00 AM
  2820. Heyman, WCW, Corino
  2821.  
  2822. 2/8/2001 8:46:00 PM
  2823. NBA's Stern reacts to XFL, Ross & Ventura news, Sports Illustrated on XFL and Backyard Wrestling, Japanese PPV news
  2824.  
  2825. 2/8/2001 3:22:00 PM
  2826. Greatest matches of the decade of the 90s
  2827.  
  2828. 2/8/2001 12:52:00 PM
  2829. First Thursday update: Fusient expected takeover date of WCW; Sports Illustrated on XFL and backyard wrestling; PR news
  2830.  
  2831. 2/7/2001 11:41:00 PM
  2832. XFL news, Mexico news, Savage news
  2833.  
  2834. 2/7/2001 3:42:00 PM
  2835. February 12 Wrestling Observer Newsletter preview
  2836.  
  2837. 2/7/2001 3:38:00 PM
  2838. Wednesday headlines; Ross, Defort on XFL, Comments on CNBC with Linda, Nitro woes
  2839.  
  2840. 2/7/2001 3:29:00 PM
  2841. Classic AWA PPV to Replace Cancelled WCW PPV in Canada
  2842.  
  2843. 2/7/2001 2:26:00 PM
  2844. XFL Announcer Changes
  2845.  
  2846. 2/6/2001 11:38:00 PM
  2847. WWF Smackdown Spoilers 2-6 North Charleston, SC
  2848.  
  2849. 2/6/2001 3:41:00 PM
  2850. Wrestling and football ratings
  2851.  
  2852. 2/6/2001 12:56:00 PM
  2853. First Tuesday update; More ratings, Ross & Lawler on Martzke
  2854.  
  2855. 2/6/2001 12:44:00 PM
  2856. Wrestling Legend Slams Chyna's Book
  2857.  
  2858. 2/6/2001 3:57:00 AM
  2859. XFL debate on Jim Rome; Some Thunder spoilers and non-Raw Georgia Dome results
  2860.  
  2861. 2/5/2001 7:43:00 PM
  2862. XFL Sunday rating; Mexico news; Brother of WWF star going into wrestling
  2863.  
  2864. 2/5/2001 11:44:00 AM
  2865. New Pancrase rules announced
  2866.  
  2867. 2/5/2001 11:41:00 AM
  2868. First Monday update; XFL vs. Pro Bowl, New PPV match; Indie notes
  2869.  
  2870. 2/5/2001 12:18:00 AM
  2871. Another Women of Wrestling PPV review
  2872.  
  2873. 2/4/2001 11:21:00 PM
  2874. Women of Wrestling PPV report
  2875.  
  2876. 2/4/2001 11:20:00 PM
  2877. WWF Columbus, GA 2-4 report, Super Crazy update
  2878.  
  2879. 2/4/2001 6:13:00 PM
  2880. Crazy and Tajiri update
  2881.  
  2882. 2/4/2001 6:10:00 PM
  2883. WWF house show report 2-3 Greensboro
  2884.  
  2885. 2/4/2001 6:03:00 PM
  2886. XFL ratings on NBC
  2887.  
  2888. 2/4/2001 1:53:00 PM
  2889. Quick update; New Japan; indies
  2890.  
  2891. 2/4/2001 1:51:00 PM
  2892. XFL first night report
  2893.  
  2894. 2/4/2001 9:46:00 AM
  2895. Future of Heyman and ECW; plus tons of news and results from last night, XFL and more
  2896.  
  2897. 2/3/2001 4:25:00 PM
  2898. First Saturday News Update
  2899.  
  2900. 2/2/2001 5:26:00 PM
  2901. Cauliflower Alley Club Banquet Details
  2902.  
  2903. 2/2/2001 3:15:00 PM
  2904. WWF Grabs More ECW Stars
  2905.  
  2906. 2/2/2001 2:31:00 PM
  2907. WCW Women Released
  2908.  
  2909. 2/2/2001 8:16:00 AM
  2910. XFL Sun-Sentinel story
  2911.  
  2912. 2/2/2001 4:05:00 AM
  2913. Early Friday News Update
  2914.  
  2915. 2/1/2001 10:01:00 PM
  2916. Minor news update
  2917.  
  2918. 2/1/2001 4:28:00 PM
  2919. Thursday Afternoon News Update
  2920.  
  2921. 2/1/2001 2:54:00 PM
  2922. XFL Encourages Gambling
  2923.  
  2924. ~~~~~
  2925.  
  2926.  
  2927. 2/5/2001 11:41:00 AM
  2928. First Monday update; XFL vs. Pro Bowl, New PPV match; Indie notes
  2929.  
  2930. by Dave Meltzer
  2931.  
  2932. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  2933.  
  2934. As predicted, the XFL debut outdrew the NFL Pro Bowl, although I would assume that on Sunday, not having seen the UPN or TNN ratings, that the Pro Bowl significantly outdrew the two XFL games head-to-head. The portion of the Pro Bowl last night in prime time did a 6.0 rating on the overnights. I haven't seen numbers yet for the NHL All-Star Game, but that usually does in the high 2's. If you are attending Nitro tonight in Tupelo, MS, we are looking for reports on the Thunder portion of the show so we can post it later tonight. If you are attending the Georgia Dome show in Atlanta, we're also looking for reports on the dark matches as well as the live atmosphere and are looking for reports for tomorrow night's Smackdown from North Charleston, SC. You can always send reports and feedback to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.
  2935.  
  2936. --We'll be talking about the XFL debut if you are so inclined, as well as an expected live site report of Women of Wrestling from Los Angeles and all the latest WWF, WCW and ECW maneuverings today on Wrestling Observer Live 5-7 p.m. Eastern time and 2-4 p.m. Pacific time at http://www.eyada.com. Bryan Alvarez and myself will take your phone calls and e-mails (for the show only, you can e-mail to davemeltzer@eyada.com) and you can call during those hours at 1-877-392-3299. Guests this week are Steve Corino on Wednesday, author Julian Shabazz on Thursday who wrote the history of Black Professional Wrestlers (and a very popular guest in his previous appearances) and independent wrestler Tony Jones, who was featured in "Beyond the Mat," and has experience with try-
  2937.  
  2938. --Guests for this coming week on Wrestling Observer Live will be Honky Tonk Man on Wednesday, Rick Bassman on Thursday and former WCW VP Jim Herd on Friday. For those interested in wrestling history of the beginning of the Turner era, Friday should make a show you really should listen to.
  2939.  
  2940. 2/18/2001 4:33:00 AM
  2941. Saturday night update: New Japan PPV, XFL, News and results from around the globe
  2942.  
  2943. by Dave Meltzer
  2944.  
  2945. Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  2946.  
  2947. What a difference two weeks makes. Two weeks away, we received more e-mails on the XFL than any subject in the history of this web site. Two weeks later, it might as well have been a WOW PPV for all the reaction we've received. Too bad in a sense. It was a good game, again being decided on the last play. Also bad because that doesn't bode well for ratings. If they drop anywhere close to as significantly this week as they did last week, things look bleak. Fans live in Las Vegas seemed to have a good time, until their team lost. It was easily the best announced game in the short history of the XFL, which admittedly, isn't high praise, but it is some praise. Jim Ross overall was very good. His main weakness is he still sometimes gets into that pro wrestling selling mode, in this case trying to make an exciting game seem like a classic and this was no classic. Jesse Ventura was really good in the first half. Didn't know what got into him. One thing they did learn from. Last week when there was an injured player, they has a long delay. This time, a player went down and the injury was serious and they immediately broke into a cheerleaders dance-off that was clearly pre-planned in the advent of such a thing. Saturday Night Live must have been happy as a missed 49-yard field goal would have sent the game into overtime and they'd have gone long again. But the field goal hit, LA won, and Saturday Night Live started on time.
  2948.  
  2949. ~~
  2950.  
  2951. 2000: Nov
  2952. Dec
  2953.  
  2954.  
  2955. 2001: Jan
  2956.  
  2957. Feb
  2958.  
  2959. Mar
  2960.  
  2961. Apr
  2962.  
  2963. May
  2964.  
  2965. Jun
  2966.  
  2967. Jul
  2968.  
  2969. Aug
  2970.  
  2971. 2/28/2001 11:36:00 PM
  2972. Feedback and Q&A; for 2/28/01
  2973.  
  2974. 2/28/2001 11:09:00 PM
  2975. Alarming first-person Seattle earthquake coverage
  2976.  
  2977. 2/28/2001 10:55:00 PM
  2978. WCW Thunder 2/28/01
  2979.  
  2980. 2/28/2001 11:20:00 AM
  2981. Feb 26 New Japan TV Report
  2982.  
  2983. 2/28/2001 4:32:00 AM
  2984. Wrestlers annoying wrestlers trivia
  2985.  
  2986. 2/28/2001 4:20:00 AM
  2987. Wrestling Observer Live 2-27 report
  2988.  
  2989. 2/28/2001 2:26:00 AM
  2990. Tons of feedback, questions and HATE MAIL!
  2991.  
  2992. 2/27/2001 7:32:00 PM
  2993. WWF Sunday Night Heat report
  2994.  
  2995. 2/27/2001 4:44:00 AM
  2996. Wrestling Observer Live 2-26 report
  2997.  
  2998. 2/27/2001 4:29:00 AM
  2999. WCW Monday Nitro report for 2/26/01
  3000.  
  3001. 2/26/2001 10:57:00 PM
  3002. WWF Monday Night Raw 2/26/01
  3003.  
  3004. 2/26/2001 1:43:00 PM
  3005. Steve Corino interview
  3006.  
  3007. 2/26/2001 3:17:00 AM
  3008. No Way Out and UFC Feedback
  3009.  
  3010. 2/26/2001 3:13:00 AM
  3011. WCW World Wide report
  3012.  
  3013. 2/25/2001 11:27:00 PM
  3014. Bill Alfonso interview
  3015.  
  3016. 2/25/2001 11:14:00 PM
  3017. Wrestling Observer Live 2-23 with Bobby Heenan, Frank Shamrock and Don Frye
  3018.  
  3019. 2/25/2001 4:21:00 PM
  3020. Power Pro TV report for 2-24
  3021.  
  3022. 2/25/2001 1:19:00 PM
  3023. Full Transcript of Lita on The LAW
  3024.  
  3025. 2/25/2001 12:32:00 PM
  3026. XPW report for 2-24 in Reseda, CA featuring Death match tourney
  3027.  
  3028. 2/25/2001 3:04:00 AM
  3029. Wrestling Observer Live 2-22 with Badnews Allen and Evan Tanner
  3030.  
  3031. 2/25/2001 12:05:00 AM
  3032. Greatest matches of the 80s and 90s
  3033.  
  3034. 2/25/2001 12:04:00 AM
  3035. WWF Byte This report with Stephanie McMahon
  3036.  
  3037. 2/25/2001 12:02:00 AM
  3038. Lita interview
  3039.  
  3040. 2/25/2001 12:01:00 AM
  3041. Cruiserweight trivia answers
  3042.  
  3043. 2/24/2001 11:55:00 PM
  3044. WCW Thunder report
  3045.  
  3046. 2/24/2001 11:52:00 PM
  3047. Ohio Valley Wrestling TV tapings
  3048.  
  3049. 2/24/2001 4:13:00 AM
  3050. Detailed UFC Report
  3051.  
  3052. 2/22/2001 10:05:00 PM
  3053. WWF Smackdown! Report, Feb 22.
  3054.  
  3055. 2/22/2001 3:06:00 PM
  3056. Kurt Angle conference call highlights 2/22/01
  3057.  
  3058. 2/21/2001 2:22:00 PM
  3059. Wrestling Observer Live 2-20 with Bryan Alvarez
  3060.  
  3061. 2/21/2001 2:20:00 PM
  3062. NWA Florida press release
  3063.  
  3064. 2/21/2001 2:17:00 PM
  3065. Cruiserweight trivia
  3066.  
  3067. 2/19/2001 11:05:00 PM
  3068. WWF Raw is War Report 2/19/01
  3069.  
  3070. 2/19/2001 10:45:00 AM
  3071. Lita on The LAW, Part One
  3072.  
  3073. 2/19/2001 3:35:00 AM
  3074. WWF Byte this with Steve Blackman and Raven
  3075.  
  3076. 2/19/2001 3:34:00 AM
  3077. WCW Worldwide TV report
  3078.  
  3079. 2/19/2001 2:20:00 AM
  3080. One Year Ago in Figure Four Weekly PLUS Ordering Info
  3081.  
  3082. 2/19/2001 1:30:00 AM
  3083. Feedback and Q&A; for February 18th
  3084.  
  3085. 2/19/2001 1:30:00 AM
  3086. Bill Goldberg interview
  3087.  
  3088. 2/19/2001 12:51:00 AM
  3089. Power Pro TV report for 2-17
  3090.  
  3091. 2/18/2001 11:27:00 PM
  3092. Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling report for 2-18 in Carrolton, GA
  3093.  
  3094. 2/18/2001 5:10:00 PM
  3095. Wrestling Observer Live 2-16 with Jim Herd
  3096.  
  3097. 2/18/2001 5:09:00 PM
  3098. Francine interview
  3099.  
  3100. 2/18/2001 5:08:00 PM
  3101. Sonny Onoo interview
  3102.  
  3103. 2/18/2001 3:37:00 PM
  3104. Shane Helms interview
  3105.  
  3106. 2/18/2001 3:32:00 PM
  3107. NWA Wildside TV tapings 2-17 Cornelia, GA
  3108.  
  3109. 2/18/2001 9:19:00 AM
  3110. Feb 17 All Japan TV Report
  3111.  
  3112. 2/18/2001 3:38:00 AM
  3113. WWF Metal Report
  3114.  
  3115. 2/17/2001 1:31:00 AM
  3116. Feedback and Q&A; for February 16th, 2000
  3117.  
  3118. 2/16/2001 4:27:00 PM
  3119. Wrestling Observer Live 2-15 with Rick Bassman
  3120.  
  3121. 2/16/2001 1:18:00 PM
  3122. Valentine's Day trivia answers
  3123.  
  3124. 2/15/2001 11:14:00 PM
  3125. Smackdown! Report, Feb 15.
  3126.  
  3127. 2/15/2001 4:20:00 PM
  3128. Preview of new Figure Four Weekly PLUS ordering information and special offer
  3129.  
  3130. 2/15/2001 4:15:00 PM
  3131. Observerlivechat.com schedule
  3132.  
  3133. 2/15/2001 1:28:00 PM
  3134. Wrestling Observer Live 2-14 with Honky Tonk Man
  3135.  
  3136. 2/15/2001 3:39:00 AM
  3137. Ohio Valley TV taping report 2-14
  3138.  
  3139. 2/14/2001 11:04:00 PM
  3140. Feedback and Q&A; for Valentine's Day
  3141.  
  3142. 2/14/2001 10:56:00 PM
  3143. WCW Thunder 2/14/01
  3144.  
  3145. 2/14/2001 7:35:00 PM
  3146. Guest editorial: Chris Jericho in WWF
  3147.  
  3148. 2/14/2001 4:44:00 PM
  3149. Final Tuesday Poll Results
  3150.  
  3151. 2/14/2001 5:25:00 AM
  3152. Wrestling Observer Live 2-13 report
  3153.  
  3154. 2/14/2001 2:08:00 AM
  3155. Valentine's Day trivia
  3156.  
  3157. 2/13/2001 4:33:00 PM
  3158. Final weekend poll results
  3159.  
  3160. 2/13/2001 4:10:00 AM
  3161. WCW Nitro Report for February 12th
  3162.  
  3163. 2/13/2001 3:07:00 AM
  3164. Wrestling Observer Live 2-12 with Eric Bischoff
  3165.  
  3166. 2/12/2001 11:08:00 PM
  3167. WWF Monday Night Raw report 01/12/01
  3168.  
  3169. 2/12/2001 10:58:00 PM
  3170. Billy Gunn interview
  3171.  
  3172. 2/12/2001 1:52:00 PM
  3173. WWF Classics TV report
  3174.  
  3175. 2/12/2001 1:27:00 PM
  3176. Guest Editorial: Response to Zenk on WCW sale
  3177.  
  3178. 2/12/2001 9:32:00 AM
  3179. Transcript Of Nick Bockwinkel On The LAW
  3180.  
  3181. 2/11/2001 9:21:00 PM
  3182. Guest Editorial: Zenk says AOL/Time Warner should pull out of deal
  3183.  
  3184. 2/11/2001 7:27:00 PM
  3185. More ideas on revamping WCW
  3186.  
  3187. 2/11/2001 11:09:00 AM
  3188. Transcript Of 'Shooter' Tony Jones On The LAW
  3189.  
  3190. 2/11/2001 3:25:00 AM
  3191. Hugh Morrus interview
  3192.  
  3193. 2/11/2001 3:23:00 AM
  3194. WWF Live Wire Report
  3195.  
  3196. 2/11/2001 3:22:00 AM
  3197. Power Pro TV report for 2-10
  3198.  
  3199. 2/11/2001 3:13:00 AM
  3200. XFL Feedback -- Down considerably from last week
  3201.  
  3202. 2/10/2001 7:54:00 PM
  3203. NON-XFL Feedback and Q&A; for February 10th, 2001
  3204.  
  3205. 2/10/2001 12:16:00 AM
  3206. Wrestling Observer Live 2-9
  3207.  
  3208. 2/9/2001 11:59:00 PM
  3209. Wrestling Observer Live 2-9 with Tony Jones
  3210.  
  3211. 2/9/2001 4:08:00 PM
  3212. Wednesday poll results
  3213.  
  3214. 2/9/2001 12:34:00 PM
  3215. Wrestling Observer Live 2-8 with Julian Shabazz
  3216.  
  3217. 2/9/2001 8:55:00 AM
  3218. WWF Smackdown report 02/08/01
  3219.  
  3220. 2/8/2001 8:15:00 PM
  3221. WWF Byte This with Justin Credible and Tazz
  3222.  
  3223. 2/8/2001 4:03:00 PM
  3224. Preview of this week's new Figure Four Weekly plus ordering information and special offer
  3225.  
  3226. 2/8/2001 12:20:00 PM
  3227. Wrestling Observer Live 2-7 with Steve Corino
  3228.  
  3229. 2/8/2001 12:17:00 PM
  3230. I hate my partner trivia answers
  3231.  
  3232. 2/8/2001 10:47:00 AM
  3233. New Japan World Pro Wrestling Report February 5, 2001
  3234.  
  3235. 2/8/2001 2:11:00 AM
  3236. The next line of pro wrestling books
  3237.  
  3238. 2/8/2001 12:33:00 AM
  3239. Feedback and Q&A; for February 7, 2001
  3240.  
  3241. 2/7/2001 11:35:00 PM
  3242. WCW Thunder report 02/07/01
  3243.  
  3244. 2/7/2001 4:35:00 PM
  3245. Wrestling News Parody
  3246.  
  3247. 2/7/2001 1:37:00 PM
  3248. Linda McMahon on CNBC
  3249.  
  3250. 2/7/2001 4:20:00 AM
  3251. Wrestling Observer Live 2-6 with Bryan Alvarez
  3252.  
  3253. 2/6/2001 12:05:00 PM
  3254. International News and ratings
  3255.  
  3256. 2/6/2001 12:01:00 PM
  3257. I hate my partner trivia questions
  3258.  
  3259. 2/6/2001 3:59:00 AM
  3260. Wrestling Observer Live 2-5 with Bryan Alvarez and Alex Marvez
  3261.  
  3262. 2/5/2001 11:11:00 PM
  3263. WWF Raw report 02/05/01
  3264.  
  3265. 2/5/2001 7:40:00 PM
  3266. WWF Sunday Night Heat report for 2-4
  3267.  
  3268. 2/5/2001 1:57:00 PM
  3269. WWF Classics TV report
  3270.  
  3271. 2/5/2001 11:43:00 AM
  3272. Roadkill speaks, says more than "chickens"
  3273.  
  3274. 2/5/2001 9:31:00 AM
  3275. Bobby Heenan on The LAW Transcript
  3276.  
  3277. 2/4/2001 8:39:00 PM
  3278. Guest editorial: Three and four man matches
  3279.  
  3280. 2/4/2001 8:29:00 PM
  3281. Feedback on everything including -- yes -- XFL
  3282.  
  3283. 2/4/2001 8:28:00 PM
  3284. NWA tag title changes hands
  3285.  
  3286. 2/4/2001 5:29:00 PM
  3287. WOW Preview -- Figure Four Weekly Heroes of Wrestling PPV Report
  3288.  
  3289. 2/4/2001 8:53:00 AM
  3290. Power Pro TV report for 2-3
  3291.  
  3292. 2/4/2001 8:50:00 AM
  3293. Live Audio Wrestling with Kurt Angle and Lance Storm
  3294.  
  3295. 2/4/2001 8:48:00 AM
  3296. Chyna on with Regis
  3297.  
  3298. 2/4/2001 8:45:00 AM
  3299. WCW announcers trivia answers
  3300.  
  3301. 2/4/2001 8:44:00 AM
  3302. Sandman interview
  3303.  
  3304. 2/4/2001 8:43:00 AM
  3305. Bobby Heenan interview
  3306.  
  3307. 2/4/2001 2:47:00 AM
  3308. OK, that's enough -- Still more XFL feedback
  3309.  
  3310. 2/3/2001 11:32:00 PM
  3311. Apparently a lot of you watched XFL -- More feedback
  3312.  
  3313. 2/3/2001 10:56:00 PM
  3314. Big Show on Byte This Recap
  3315.  
  3316. 2/3/2001 10:39:00 PM
  3317. Shocking amount of XFL feedback
  3318.  
  3319. 2/3/2001 9:37:00 PM
  3320. Early XFL Feedback
  3321.  
  3322. 2/3/2001 4:18:00 PM
  3323. Wrestling Observer Live 2-2
  3324.  
  3325. 2/3/2001 2:34:00 AM
  3326. One Year Ago in Figure Four Weekly (#241) plus ordering information
  3327.  
  3328. 2/2/2001 4:56:00 PM
  3329. Final Wednesday Poll results
  3330.  
  3331. 2/2/2001 3:39:00 AM
  3332. An Ideas and Issues Lecture with Mick Foley, Feb 1
  3333.  
  3334. 2/2/2001 3:33:00 AM
  3335. Wrestling Observer Live Recap 2/1
  3336.  
  3337. 2/1/2001 10:00:00 PM
  3338. WWF Smackdown
  3339.  
  3340. 2/1/2001 5:04:00 AM
  3341. Wrestling Observer Live Recap 1/31
  3342.  
  3343. ~~~~
  3344.  
  3345. 2000: Nov
  3346. Dec
  3347.  
  3348.  
  3349. 2001: Jan
  3350.  
  3351. Feb
  3352.  
  3353. Mar
  3354.  
  3355. Apr
  3356.  
  3357. May
  3358.  
  3359. Jun
  3360.  
  3361. Jul
  3362.  
  3363. Aug
  3364.  
  3365. WWF Smackdown Report 08/02/01 EST updated 8/2/2001 9:39:00 PM EST
  3366.  
  3367. Figure Four Flashback (From November 20, 2000, Issue #282) EST updated 8/2/2001 1:55:00 PM EST
  3368.  
  3369. Dory Funk's BANG TV report EST updated 8/1/2001 3:01:00 PM EST
  3370.  
  3371. Scott Hudson on Between the Ropes EST updated 7/31/2001 9:28:00 PM EST
  3372.  
  3373. ~~~~~
  3374.  
  3375. 2000: Nov
  3376. Dec
  3377.  
  3378.  
  3379. 2001: Jan
  3380.  
  3381. Feb
  3382.  
  3383. Mar
  3384.  
  3385. Apr
  3386.  
  3387. May
  3388.  
  3389. Jun
  3390.  
  3391. 3/31/2001 6:01:00 PM
  3392. More Wrestlemania updates and indie notes
  3393.  
  3394. 3/31/2001 1:39:00 PM
  3395. Wrestlemania update; Kawada vs. Tenryu; Kea's biggest win
  3396.  
  3397. 3/31/2001 1:50:00 AM
  3398. WCW crew going to Wrestlemania
  3399.  
  3400. 3/30/2001 11:20:00 PM
  3401. EMLL PPV results
  3402.  
  3403. 3/30/2001 4:36:00 PM
  3404. Afternoon update; More on Mania, Smackdown ratings, WCW plans
  3405.  
  3406. 3/30/2001 1:32:00 PM
  3407. Bryan wrestling tonight at Edmonds Community College, Edmonds, WA
  3408.  
  3409. 3/30/2001 1:29:00 PM
  3410. First Friday update; Michaels, Smackdown ratings; Doink identity, Mexican legend passes away, PPV card and more
  3411.  
  3412. 3/30/2001 2:40:00 AM
  3413. Weekend schedule
  3414.  
  3415. 3/29/2001 10:26:00 PM
  3416. Japanese news update including Carnival upset
  3417.  
  3418. 3/29/2001 1:37:00 PM
  3419. First Thursday update; WCW office fired en masse; History re-written; first new WCW TV show and taping; Legendary ref passes away
  3420.  
  3421. 3/29/2001 1:02:00 PM
  3422. 1st WCW Taping Date
  3423.  
  3424. 3/28/2001 8:53:00 PM
  3425. Lawler news, Mexico news, Indie results
  3426.  
  3427. 3/28/2001 3:18:00 PM
  3428. First Wednesday Update; Michaels; Lawler and More.
  3429.  
  3430. 3/28/2001 4:00:00 AM
  3431. Ratings; Michaels update; biggest UFC
  3432.  
  3433. 3/28/2001 3:52:00 AM
  3434. WWF Smackdown/International Heat spoilers
  3435.  
  3436. 3/27/2001 1:15:00 PM
  3437. First Tuesday update; Michaels, Backstage at Nitro, Raw, XFL numbers
  3438.  
  3439. 3/26/2001 11:27:00 PM
  3440. WCW TV notes, Non-Raw results, IWA, EMLL and more
  3441.  
  3442. 3/26/2001 5:26:00 PM
  3443. WWF-WCW/TNN update
  3444.  
  3445. 3/26/2001 3:34:00 PM
  3446. Tonight's TV update
  3447.  
  3448. 3/26/2001 12:33:00 PM
  3449. First Monday update; Final Nitro on TNN; XFL in grave trouble on NBC; XFL numbers; Steiner & Nash interviews cause controversy
  3450.  
  3451. 3/25/2001 10:12:00 PM
  3452. Late Sunday news and more weekend results
  3453.  
  3454. 3/25/2001 9:06:00 PM
  3455. WWF house show 3-25 Worcester, MA
  3456.  
  3457. 3/25/2001 8:56:00 PM
  3458. WWF house show report 3-25 Baltimore
  3459.  
  3460. 3/25/2001 1:28:00 PM
  3461. First Sunday update; XFL ratings, more on Pride, Lots of indie news, More on WCW transition
  3462.  
  3463. 3/25/2001 10:38:00 AM
  3464. More WWF/ WCW News, WWF Wrestlers on Nitro, WCW Wrestlers on RAW, Rey Misterio Jr and Announcer bits.
  3465.  
  3466. 3/25/2001 3:30:00 AM
  3467. Pride updates every few minutes from Saitama Super Arena 3-25
  3468.  
  3469. 3/25/2001 2:01:00 AM
  3470. Saturday night update; latest candidate for No. 2 promotion; Indie notes
  3471.  
  3472. 3/25/2001 12:12:00 AM
  3473. WWF Madison Square Garden House Show 3-24
  3474.  
  3475. 3/24/2001 4:27:00 PM
  3476. First Saturday update; More details on WCW purchase of WWF; More on talent, Goldberg, Foley, Michaels, Stiener, Nash
  3477.  
  3478. 3/23/2001 8:09:00 PM
  3479. Latest update on WWF purchase of WCW regarding wrestler contracts
  3480.  
  3481. 3/23/2001 7:47:00 PM
  3482. Linda McMahon on WCW purchase
  3483.  
  3484. 3/23/2001 4:37:00 PM
  3485. Memo to WCW employees from Brad Siegel on sale
  3486.  
  3487. 3/23/2001 4:34:00 PM
  3488. WWF press release announcing WCW purchase
  3489.  
  3490. 3/23/2001 3:59:00 PM
  3491. Smackdown ratings
  3492.  
  3493. 3/23/2001 3:51:00 PM
  3494. WWF-WCW sale finalized
  3495.  
  3496. 3/23/2001 5:04:00 AM
  3497. Osaka Dome major changes
  3498.  
  3499. 3/23/2001 3:06:00 AM
  3500. Some preliminary WWF plans for WCW
  3501.  
  3502. 3/23/2001 3:04:00 AM
  3503. McMahon radio review; confrontation with Mushnick; background of what was discussed from nine years ago
  3504.  
  3505. 3/23/2001 1:55:00 AM
  3506. Preview of this week's Figure Four Weekly PLUS ordering info for newsletter and tapes
  3507.  
  3508. 3/22/2001 4:20:00 PM
  3509. XFL and HHH news
  3510.  
  3511. 3/22/2001 4:07:00 PM
  3512. More on sale and final Nitro
  3513.  
  3514. 3/22/2001 1:50:00 PM
  3515. First Thursday update; McMahon on Stern; No-show threatens future of Canton wrestling
  3516.  
  3517. 3/21/2001 11:32:00 PM
  3518. TBS Wrestling goes out with a whimper; Vince does radio
  3519.  
  3520. 3/21/2001 12:40:00 PM
  3521. First Wednesday update; Bad response to WWF; XFL blamed for NBC's drop; Observer news; Shamrock official word
  3522.  
  3523. 3/20/2001 11:22:00 PM
  3524. Smackdown spoilers
  3525.  
  3526. 3/20/2001 7:12:00 PM
  3527. Sale update news; Ratings
  3528.  
  3529. 3/20/2001 1:14:00 PM
  3530. First Tuesday update; Latest on WCW; WWF not liking fan response; Osaka Dome change after angles today; Indie news
  3531.  
  3532. 3/20/2001 2:59:00 AM
  3533. WWF non-Raw matches and WCW Thunder tapings spoilers
  3534.  
  3535. 3/19/2001 7:52:00 PM
  3536. Huge Nitro news including Bischoff's appearance
  3537.  
  3538. 3/19/2001 12:34:00 PM
  3539. First Monday update; tons of news; Turner TV update; Jarrett news; Japanese star hospitalized; XFL ratings
  3540.  
  3541. 3/19/2001 12:08:00 PM
  3542. Time-Warner response to WCW shutdown
  3543.  
  3544. 3/18/2001 11:54:00 PM
  3545. 3-18 WWF Montreal house show
  3546.  
  3547. 3/18/2001 11:53:00 PM
  3548. WCW Greed PPV rundown
  3549.  
  3550. 3/18/2001 7:46:00 PM
  3551. WCW Greed up to the minute report
  3552.  
  3553. 3/18/2001 4:27:00 PM
  3554. Wrestlemania update; WCW notes
  3555.  
  3556. 3/18/2001 12:48:00 PM
  3557. Independent wrestler passes away
  3558.  
  3559. 3/18/2001 11:44:00 AM
  3560. First Sunday update; Probable final WCW PPV in history tonight; XFL ratings; indie notes
  3561.  
  3562. 3/18/2001 4:53:00 AM
  3563. WWF house show report 3-17 Toronto
  3564.  
  3565. 3/17/2001 8:18:00 PM
  3566. Update on future of WCW; Pride huge change
  3567.  
  3568. 3/17/2001 2:27:00 PM
  3569. More on Lawler/WWF situation with Power Pro TV today
  3570.  
  3571. 3/17/2001 2:07:00 PM
  3572. Lawler returns to Power Pro; Is WWF deal finished?
  3573.  
  3574. 3/17/2001 11:54:00 AM
  3575. More news on WCW closing and the one show that will remain; New IWGP champ; Muto's surprise; More bad news on Kobashi; Record setting Sanderson goes for title
  3576.  
  3577. 3/16/2001 7:53:00 PM
  3578. More on WCW sale going through and future plus bad news adds up for Kobashi; latest WWF news as well
  3579.  
  3580. 3/16/2001 4:04:00 PM
  3581. Smackdown ratings
  3582.  
  3583. 3/16/2001 3:57:00 PM
  3584. Upcoming weekend wrestling schedule
  3585.  
  3586. 3/16/2001 3:57:00 PM
  3587. Smackdown Overnights
  3588.  
  3589. 3/16/2001 3:56:00 PM
  3590. Official Word on WCW from Brad Siegel and other Wrestling Notes
  3591.  
  3592. 3/16/2001 12:59:00 AM
  3593. WCW sale update
  3594.  
  3595. 3/15/2001 8:05:00 PM
  3596. A few early evening notes, Ventura, Vince and more
  3597.  
  3598. 3/15/2001 1:21:00 PM
  3599. More on Costas show; Vince does 180 on Ventura;
  3600.  
  3601. 3/15/2001 2:05:00 AM
  3602. Complete Pride 13 line-up
  3603.  
  3604. 3/15/2001 1:46:00 AM
  3605. Feedback on Costas; WWF weekend line-ups; Mexico news
  3606.  
  3607. 3/14/2001 2:57:00 PM
  3608. Pride PPV schedule for United States and Canada
  3609.  
  3610. 3/14/2001 2:31:00 PM
  3611. Confirmed Off The Record Air Dates with WWF Talent
  3612.  
  3613. 3/14/2001 2:28:00 PM
  3614. First Wednesday update: Ogawa vs. boxer?, XFL ratings correction, McMahon on HBO
  3615.  
  3616. 3/14/2001 11:33:00 AM
  3617. WCW, XFL, Lawler news
  3618.  
  3619. 3/14/2001 4:26:00 AM
  3620. Smackdown/Heat Tapings 3-13 Anaheim, CA
  3621.  
  3622. 3/14/2001 3:01:00 AM
  3623. Raw vs. Nitro ratings comparisons
  3624.  
  3625. 3/13/2001 3:53:00 PM
  3626. Wrestling and XFL ratings
  3627.  
  3628. 3/13/2001 12:56:00 PM
  3629. First Tuesday update; WWF notes
  3630.  
  3631. 3/13/2001 4:27:00 AM
  3632. WWF house show report 3-11 San Diego
  3633.  
  3634. 3/13/2001 4:24:00 AM
  3635. WCW Thunder report 3-12 Knoxville
  3636.  
  3637. 3/13/2001 4:23:00 AM
  3638. Non-Raw notes from Los Angeles 3-12
  3639.  
  3640. 3/13/2001 4:21:00 AM
  3641. Notes on Raw, XFL, ECW laden indie date; Indie news
  3642.  
  3643. 3/12/2001 12:20:00 PM
  3644. First Monday update; WCW news, XFL ratings, Ogawa in accident, Santo in SF.
  3645.  
  3646. 3/11/2001 12:24:00 PM
  3647. First Sunday update; XFL ratings; lots of indie news
  3648.  
  3649. 3/11/2001 11:39:00 AM
  3650. WWF house show report 3-10 El Paso
  3651.  
  3652. 3/11/2001 4:42:00 AM
  3653. WWF house show report 3-10 Reno
  3654.  
  3655. 3/10/2001 9:41:00 PM
  3656. Cheerleaders in the locker room report
  3657.  
  3658. 3/10/2001 3:35:00 PM
  3659. First Saturday update; WCW, XFL, WM, Steamboat
  3660.  
  3661. 3/9/2001 10:59:00 PM
  3662. Lots of WWF and WCW News--plus a great movie review
  3663.  
  3664. 3/9/2001 8:00:00 PM
  3665. ECW & EMLL PPV notes; Other evening notes
  3666.  
  3667. 3/9/2001 3:58:00 PM
  3668. No good news, WCW in disarray, Smackdown ratings down, EMLL PPV main event is bad, but we knew that one ahead of time
  3669.  
  3670. 3/9/2001 2:40:00 PM
  3671. Pro wrestling weekend preview
  3672.  
  3673. 3/9/2001 2:25:00 PM
  3674. First Friday update; Osaka Dome main event; Smackdown ratings; Change in XFL philosophy, Vince conciliatory
  3675.  
  3676. 3/9/2001 1:36:00 PM
  3677. Viewer's Choice Canada Replays Last ECW PPV This Weekend
  3678.  
  3679. 3/8/2001 10:47:00 PM
  3680. XFL demographics
  3681.  
  3682. 3/8/2001 9:41:00 PM
  3683. Ross dumped, XFL cleverly avoids a record, Pride announces new fights, Indie news
  3684.  
  3685. 3/8/2001 4:35:00 PM
  3686. Crowbar released
  3687.  
  3688. 3/8/2001 1:15:00 PM
  3689. First Thursday update; Vince on XFL, Dream match at Budokan, Lawler speaks, HHH on FOX
  3690.  
  3691. 3/8/2001 3:33:00 AM
  3692. Tons of news from around the world; Ratings correction, Rome on XFL, Vince on Costas, HHH on Edge, , Parka on Wagner
  3693.  
  3694. 3/7/2001 9:26:00 PM
  3695. Wednesday Evening Update
  3696.  
  3697. 3/7/2001 4:14:00 PM
  3698. First Wednesday update
  3699.  
  3700. 3/7/2001 1:41:00 PM
  3701. Smackdown and Heat Taping Results
  3702.  
  3703. 3/6/2001 3:43:00 PM
  3704. Rest of Thunder notes
  3705.  
  3706. 3/6/2001 2:53:00 PM
  3707. NJ tag title change; XFL ratings drop again
  3708.  
  3709. 3/6/2001 1:49:00 PM
  3710. First Tuesday update; Some WCW notes
  3711.  
  3712. 3/6/2001 2:46:00 AM
  3713. WWF non-Raw notes from DC, Finality of ECW
  3714.  
  3715. 3/5/2001 11:04:00 PM
  3716. Some Thunder notes, Greed matches, Misterio vs. Sabu, indie notes
  3717.  
  3718. 3/5/2001 12:52:00 PM
  3719. First Monday update; Heyman at Raw tonight may officially end ECW; XFL ratings for Sunday
  3720.  
  3721. 3/5/2001 1:13:00 AM
  3722. WWF house show 3-4 Hershey, PA
  3723.  
  3724. 3/5/2001 1:10:00 AM
  3725. WWF house show 3-4 Wilkes-Barre, PA
  3726.  
  3727. 3/5/2001 12:21:00 AM
  3728. WCW house show 3-4 in Johnson City, TN
  3729.  
  3730. 3/4/2001 11:09:00 PM
  3731. Another Tyson story from Japan; Lots of indie news
  3732.  
  3733. 3/4/2001 1:36:00 PM
  3734. Beyond the Mat TV schedule
  3735.  
  3736. 3/4/2001 1:32:00 PM
  3737. First Sunday update; WWF in Springfield, ECW star at show, XFL ratings, WCW try-out, Indies w/ECW names
  3738.  
  3739. 3/4/2001 3:13:00 AM
  3740. Rhodes off Nitro, Cameras in cheerleaders locker room, Beyond the Mat on TV
  3741.  
  3742. 3/3/2001 1:45:00 PM
  3743. First Saturday update; more from Osaka Dome, Hall debuts in NJ
  3744.  
  3745. 3/3/2001 2:39:00 AM
  3746. Dusty returns to Nitro Monday
  3747.  
  3748. 3/2/2001 9:12:00 PM
  3749. New Japan announces Osaka Dome line-up
  3750.  
  3751. 3/2/2001 4:05:00 PM
  3752. Upcoming Off The Record Shows With WWF Wrestlers
  3753.  
  3754. 3/2/2001 4:03:00 PM
  3755. Smackdown final ratings
  3756.  
  3757. 3/2/2001 2:48:00 PM
  3758. Notes from Ross report
  3759.  
  3760. 3/2/2001 1:40:00 PM
  3761. Weekend news notes and preview
  3762.  
  3763. 3/2/2001 1:15:00 PM
  3764. First Friday update: WCW-Fusient sale, Lawler update; Smackdown ratings; IWA news
  3765.  
  3766. 3/2/2001 1:14:00 PM
  3767. Zero-One PPV results
  3768.  
  3769. 3/1/2001 2:00:00 PM
  3770. First Thursday update; Indie news, Gangrel update, Tillman doesn't want feud
  3771.  
  3772. ~~~~~
  3773.  
  3774. 3/18/2001 11:44:00 AM
  3775. First Sunday update; Probable final WCW PPV in history tonight; XFL ratings; indie notes
  3776.  
  3777. 2/10/2001 2:18:00 PM
  3778. Lou Thesz on wrestling history
  3779.  
  3780. by Lou Thesz
  3781.  
  3782. Editors note: Lou Thesz will be appearing on Wrestling Observer Live on Monday, February 19, and one of the topics he wants to talk about is the greatest wrestlers of all-time. He made this personal list as a way to start the discussion.
  3783.  
  3784. The first chapter of the revised edition of "Hooker," plus book purchasing information is available at http://www.twc-online.com/thesz.
  3785.  
  3786. ___________________________________________________
  3787.  
  3788. Before you read my personal list of the top 25 wrestlers of all time, I would like to tell you the strengths and the weaknesses of my assessment. No one in the world is ever objective; we can try, and even say we are, even think we are, but it just doesn't happen. My opinions were formed by my personal experiences, which could have been clouded by personality clashes or special friendships; by opinions of people I liked and respected (which also were not objective); by personal circumstances; and by hindsight, which showed me errors in judgements -- mine or theirs.
  3789.  
  3790. The top 5:
  3791.  
  3792. ED "STRANGLER" LEWIS was one of the very best of all time and such an extraordinary person. What he did for professional wrestling may escape some people, but he had the extraordinary wrestling talent and the mind to take professional wrestling to a new frontier. He had the most unusual physique for a wrestler, but he was designed in such a way it was almost impossible to take him off his feet. He never looked in great condition,
  3793. but had an amazing strength and stamina. Even when he had been out all night doing "God only knows what," he could get in the ring the next day and perform an exciting match with a lesser opponent or take on a real competitor. He was one of my dearest and most valued friends and definitely my hero. Contrary to his image, Ed was an extremely intelligent man who was friends with the likes of J. Edgar Hoover, played bridge with Goren,
  3794. befriended men like Fruehauf -- the 18-wheeler magnate -- and was honored by the heads of state in every country in Europe. He was also a very staunch Republican and very active in politics.
  3795.  
  3796. JOE STECHER is a wrestler I had the great honor to meet. Though illness had taken him out of the limelight, and his mind was saddened by his illness, I had the incredible experience of wrestling him in a work-out situation a few years after his career and training had ended. He was such a strong figure
  3797. and his reflexes were so quick and instinctive he managed to defeat pretty handily all the boys in the gym (about six of us) who were lined up for the honor of being beaten by him. I was about 18 years old at the time, and the experience never left me. Joe Stecher, like Lewis, was born a wrestler and died a wrestler. It wasn't merely a career, or a way to make a living --it was life.
  3798.  
  3799. ~~~~~
  3800.  
  3801. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Ivory are on the latest cover of
  3802. "Entertainment Weekly". You know, I used to have a subscription to that
  3803. about six or seven years ago. A whole year and pro-wrestling wasn't
  3804. mentioned once. Now, a week doesn't go by that they aren't mentioning
  3805. wrestling in some form or another. I only mention this because in the
  3806. course of moving this week I came across the box with all the issues in
  3807. it.
  3808.  
  3809. ~~~
  3810.  
  3811. Perhaps what most spooked WCW was the fact that with all the losses they've
  3812. suffered in recent months, and all the adversity against them, the WWF still
  3813. hasn't crumbled. A collapse by the WWF sure would have helped WCW, but so
  3814. far that collapse hasn't happened yet. They've even lost Steve Austin, for
  3815. God's sake, yet they keep chugging along.
  3816.  
  3817. ~~~
  3818.  
  3819. In a bit which gave Bob Ryder six months worth of anti-WWF ammo, Jerry
  3820. Lawler tries to plug the "Stone Cold" Steve Austin figure that talks. Or
  3821. at least it's supposed to, but he can't make it work. He and Ross lamely
  3822. pretend they can hear it talking. "Folks, it really does work!"
  3823.  
  3824. ~~~~
  3825.  
  3826. Hey, if the WWF did the imitation first, doesn't that mean WCW is blatantly
  3827. copying a WWF angle? (I'm sure WCW fans are now blowing the whistle,
  3828. throwing a yellow flag and waving the Russo/Ferrara handbook in the air.)
  3829.  
  3830. ~~~~~~
  3831.  
  3832. Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #211
  3833. November 29th, 1999
  3834.  
  3835. The Opening Word:
  3836.  
  3837. Looks like Mick Foley's in-ring career in the WWF is just about at an end.
  3838. Piecing the story together, it seems Foley planned on announcing, a few
  3839. weeks ago on WWF TV, that he would be retiring soon. He actually made the
  3840. announcement official during an interview on "Off the Record" in Canada
  3841. during a show taped two weeks ago. The show aired this week. By this time
  3842. Foley was supposed to have already made the announcement on RAW. As it
  3843. turned out, the WWF talked Foley into reconsidering the announcement,
  3844. especially in light of their loss of Steve Austin from the active duty
  3845. roster. Mick has now decided that he will probably not officially announce
  3846. the retirement. He will instead continue to perform in the same capacity
  3847. he's done the last several weeks. He'll then take some time off, and perhaps
  3848. then come back, going the Terry Funk route and coming back for the
  3849. occasional special match. He won't be "coming out of retirement", though,
  3850. because they won't actually say he's retired.
  3851.  
  3852. Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #211
  3853. November 29th, 1999
  3854.  
  3855. The Opening Word:
  3856.  
  3857. Looks like Mick Foley's in-ring career in the WWF is just about at an end.
  3858. Piecing the story together, it seems Foley planned on announcing, a few
  3859. weeks ago on WWF TV, that he would be retiring soon. He actually made the
  3860. announcement official during an interview on "Off the Record" in Canada
  3861. during a show taped two weeks ago. The show aired this week. By this time
  3862. Foley was supposed to have already made the announcement on RAW. As it
  3863. turned out, the WWF talked Foley into reconsidering the announcement,
  3864. especially in light of their loss of Steve Austin from the active duty
  3865. roster. Mick has now decided that he will probably not officially announce
  3866. the retirement. He will instead continue to perform in the same capacity
  3867. he's done the last several weeks. He'll then take some time off, and perhaps
  3868. then come back, going the Terry Funk route and coming back for the
  3869. occasional special match. He won't be "coming out of retirement", though,
  3870. because they won't actually say he's retired.
  3871.  
  3872. This hits the WWF at a particularly hard time, as the loss of Steve Austin
  3873. has also become a reality. Austin will undergo surgery to remove a bone spur
  3874. that is rubbing up against his spinal column. He will spend upwards of six
  3875. weeks in a back brace, and the entire rehab time is expected to last
  3876. somewhere between three and six months. It's not all bad news for Austin,
  3877. though, as the most recent prognosis for him is that if he successfully
  3878. rehabs after the surgery, there's nothing stopping him from returning to the
  3879. ring. It is safe to assume, however, that Austin will never return to a
  3880.  
  3881. - Chyna comes down to the ring and says she's ready to give Chris Jericho a
  3882. shot at the Intercontinental Title ... tonight. Jericho comes out and
  3883. says he can't do it, he's still suffering from the effects of the hammer
  3884. shot Chyna gave him the week before. Jericho says he just gave her a love
  3885. tap, and that she had no right to do to him what she did. Chris is
  3886. getting a little hot here, so Miss Kitty comes out and blasts him with a
  3887. fire extinguisher. I sure hope the WWF notices that the fans are booing
  3888. Chyna, and making Jericho the face here.
  3889.  
  3890. More bachelorette party fun. There ought to be a male stripper coming
  3891. along any minute now.
  3892.  
  3893. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Ivory are on the latest cover of
  3894. "Entertainment Weekly". You know, I used to have a subscription to that
  3895. about six or seven years ago. A whole year and pro-wrestling wasn't
  3896. mentioned once. Now, a week doesn't go by that they aren't mentioning
  3897. wrestling in some form or another. I only mention this because in the
  3898. course of moving this week I came across the box with all the issues in
  3899. it.
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