STW - In Your House: It's Time [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Week of 11/25/1996 (Torch 11/30 & Observer 12/2)

- Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: The latest on the Shotgun Saturday Night show is that it's scheduled for a 1/4 start date. While this hasn't been officially confirmed, my belief is that they have a TV deal done and are keeping it quiet for fear WCW will try and buy it out, because you don't book buildings a few weeks out on the hopes you can at the last minute put together a TV deal. The show will air live at Midnight on Saturday nights and will be put up on satellite, so it'll air live on a syndicated network they are attempting to put together both Eastern and Central time, and on a three-hour tape delay on the West Coast, with Vince McMahon and Todd Pettingill most likely as announcers. McMahon, Bruce Prichard and Paul Heyman went out to scout various night clubs in New York City to revolve tapings in, although Heyman is not an official consultant for the show, but it wouldn't be a shock to see him have some kind of involvement in it. What's interesting about this is that McMahon had heavily criticized WCW for the expense of going live every week because of the six-figure costs each week of doing such a show, and now he's doing it himself, with similar costs of going live, but doing a syndicated show that has the added expense of perhaps having to buy time, having to put together a syndicated network that will almost surely not reach as many homes as TNT, and being in a time slot where it's going to be basically impossible to draw the kind of ratings WCW does with its live show so they can't make nearly as much selling ads for the show. In addition, by running a live show at midnight on Saturday, it'll mean WWF has to water down its Saturday night live shows since some of the stars will have to be pulled from the tour each week, and Saturday night is theoretically the most profitable night for house shows.

Ahmed Johnson's return is now set for the Raw tapings on 12/16 and his first house show will be on 12/26 in Chicago. The idea right now is to not book a match against Faarooq for as long as possible to create more anticipation of such a match.

Preliminary estimates for Survivors have ranged between an 0.48 and 0.58 buy rate, which have to be a huge disappointment considering it was Hart's first match back and how well promoted the show was.

Road agent and former wrestler Arnold Skaaland collapsed backstage at the Survivor Series, apparently because his blood sugar was low, but was back at work by 11/20.

Other house shows this week saw 11/20 in White Plains, NY draw 2,075 and $32,302, 11/21 in Hull, Quebec drew 1,732 and $28,267 and 11/22 in Montreal drew 6,018 and $121,290. In White Plains, they held a 20-man mini Royal Rumble which came down to Diesel, Crush and Maivia, and if you can't figure out who won that, you aren't paying attention. Maivia did do his first job in Hull to Vader. Austin pinned Goldust in White Plains and Austin received basically 100% cheers. In Montreal, Michaels pinned Mankind in the main event, while Sid had a title defense pinning Austin.

Cassidy changed his look and dropped the geek persona on his own as a way to get noticed, basically because his contract is coming up and he recognizes at this point he's going nowhere.

On Live Wire they made mention that WWF is apparently reviving the idea of doing a call-in radio show.

Jim Ross was still making subtle references this weekend of feuding with Vince McMahon, but it's been heavily downplayed. At one point Ross talked about the crowd in Springfield being a capacity crowd and saying this wasn't a theme park side show with a crowd herded in like cattle (in reference to WCW World Wide) or in a Bingo Hall. The line would come across a lot better if it really was a capacity crowd.

Weekend ratings were well up from last week with Blast off at 0.7, Live Wire at a record 1.4, and Superstars at 1.5.

On Raw 11/25, they did a live interview with Michaels and Jose Lothario where they claimed Lothario's heart was damaged in the deal with Sid. They acknowledged Michaels being booed at MSG and tried to do what they did last year with Kevin Nash after he lost the title by giving him an attitude.

Flash Funk looked awesome, both in the ring as a wrestler, and in his entrance gimmick with the women, in his Superstars debut over the weekend.

- Wade Keller in the Pro Wrestling Torch: Bodybuilder Achim Albrecht goes on his first tour starting Nov. 29 working against his trainer Body Donna Zip (Tom Prichard).

Week of 12/2/1996 (Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News 12/2, Torch 12/7, Observer & Lariat 12/9):

- WWF plans new series by Rich Brown for Broadcasting & Cable: The World Wrestling Federation in January plans to debut a syndicated weekly TV series to cash in on the growing popularity of professional wrestling and to further generate interest in its pay-per-view events. The weekly hour, tentatively titled Shotgun Saturday Night, will air live from various New York City nightclubs. One of the ways in which WWF officials hope to differentiate the show from the growing lineup of wrestling shows is through the possible addition of female combatants. Current plans call for the show to debut from the China Club on Jan. 4.

The WWF already produces a syndicated show, WWF Challenge, which airs weekends on 120 stations nationally. The organization also produces three shows on USA Network (Monday Night Raw, WWF Superstars and WWF Livewire); a weekly show on superstation WGN-TV Chicago, and 12 pay-perview events annually. Shotgun is being designed to help drive the WWF's PPV buyrates, says one WWF insider.

In the key New York market, the show will butt heads with a syndicated show from archrival wrestling organization WCW. Turner Broadcasting's WCW Worldwide airs weekly in the late-night Saturday time period on WCBS-TV New York. Head-to-head competition is nothing new for the two organizations, which fight for cable ratings each Monday night with rival shows on USA and TNT.

- Wade Keller in the Pro Wrestling Torch: The WWF is holding a staff meeting this Wednesday, Dec. 4 to formally go over the plans for “Shotgun Saturday Night,” the planned weekly live wrestling broadcast from nightclubs in New York. The plan is for the weekly show to be syndicated and broadcast live across the nation in as many markets as they can secure, which could include outright buying timeslots in some markets. By next week there should be details of what stations are locked into carrying the show along with more details on the content of the show. Wrestlers have not been formally told about the program yet.

- Combat dominates pay per view; top PPV events are all boxing or wrestling by Michael Katz for Multichannel News: A cursory glance at Request Television's report on the pay-per-view industry suggests PPV thrives off events featuring people beating each other. A closer look at the figures in the report confirms it. According to Request's second annual report, the top 20 grossing PPV events in history are either boxing or wrestling. The top 10 PPV events in 1996 ranked by revenue and buy rates are all boxing and wrestling events. In 1996, boxing accounted for 56.7% of gross revenue generated by PPV events; wrestling, 35.2%; combat sports 6.4%; other sports, 0.5%. Concerts and music totaled 1.2%. And the trend is expected to continue. For 1997, the study concluded that "the volume of events in the boxing and wrestling categories will continue to grow, with the emergence of Oscar De La Hoya, the presence of Mike Tyson, and monthly WCW and WWF wrestling events."

But these statistics are not surprising. "Unfortunately, Americans are more turned on by violence than by any other category," says Jim English, president of Playboy Television. English, who's been in the industry for 14 years, recalls that in the beginning PPV was seen as a vehicle for movies, shopping and banking. "It was very visionary," he says. The industry "did not contemplate the event business. But now, nobody wants to come to the table and put up anything that's not sports-combat at this point."

Events accounted for 57% of the entire PPV industry, while movies made up the remaining 43%. Request, based on its own revenue, estimated that the PPV industry brought in $576 million from cable alone, not including adult PPV; it extrapolated, based on other sources, that the overall PPV industry--including cable, DBS, hotels, and adult PPV--grossed over $1.1 billion in 1996. PPV movies were bolstered by the introduction of the All-Day Movie Ticket, which the report says outperformed buy-rate expectations by 23% for movies that grossed $40 million-$100 million at the box office. While the average price for a PPV movie is expected to decline over the next few years, the report suggests that movie retailers may try to move in on PPV business by extending the time videos are on the shelf before going to PPV.

That leaves the industry dominated by the promoter foursome of Don King/Showtime (Mike Tyson), Turner Broadcasting (WCW), Titan Sports and TVKO. Thirteen of the top 20 grossing PPV events of all time feature either Mike Tyson or Evander Holyfield, with the top-ranked event being the Tyson-Holyfield fight. English says PPV has become mainly a boxing and wrestling venue because "cable is unable to promote events it doesn't understand" such as music and other events. But Hugh Panero, president, Request TV, argues that music programs are scarce on PPV because performers are demanding too much money, and that TV is too saturated with music to attract many buys. Panero adds that any big-name music events are usually snatched up by HBO.

The study also predicted a continuing rise in the average number of PPV channels per cable home. That number increased from 4.5 in 1995 to 5 in 1996, and is expected to grow to 5.8 channels per cable home in 1997.

- On The Road: Michaels Rips on Fans by Wade Keller in the Pro Wrestling Torch: Dec. 1 in Pougkeepsie, N.Y. at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center, Shawn Michaels beat Goldust. After the match Michaels brought two kids into the ring to dance, but then dozens of kids ran to the ring to join Michaels. Michaels got on the house mic during his match. In response to “Sid” chants, Michaels said: “For all of you fans who want Sid, if I have to carry that stiff through one more match I’m going to knock his teeth out for real. Sid can’t work his way out of a paper bag.” He said later: “If you people can’t drown out these two nimrods (two fans chanting for Sid), then I might as well go home.” The crowd cheered, although only half-heartedly. Michaels said he has a new attitude, and then blew his nose on a fan who was chanting for Sid. He said, “As for Bret Hart, who doesn’t think I’m a role model, I think I’ll shake my ass and do some gyrations.” He also harassed another fan at ringside, saying: “Hey, knee high (the fan was short), you’re the idiot who bought the ticket and Sid wasn’t even booked on the card.”

- Bret’s Raw Rating Disappoints by Wade Keller in the Pro Wrestling Torch: The return of Bret Hart to Monday Night Raw in a match against his brother Owen did not provide the boost the WWF was hoping for to further close the gap between Raw and Nitro. The first hour of Raw drew a 2.1 rating (3.1 share) while the first hour of Nitro drew a 2.7 rating (4.2 share). In fact, even during the first 15 minutes when Bret wrestled Owen, Nitro beat Raw 2.5 to 2.1. Nitro featured a Lex Luger vs. Arn Anderson match during that time period. The gap jumped to 3.0 to 1.9 when Eric Bischoff came out for his interview while Raw featured The Executions vs. Freddy Joe Floyd.

- Sid-Arn incident revisited by Wade Keller in the Pro Wrestling Torch: The WWF filmed an angle in Europe between Bret Hart and Sid. The angle aired on Raw, but in the preceding days their “sketchy reports” on their 900 line and on Live Wire Saturday morning regarding the angle were meant to imply the incident may have been like the real life Sid-Arn Anderson fight that took place in a hotel room three years ago at 2 a.m. The Oct. 26, 1993 fight between Sid Eudy and Anderson resulted in both men suffering numerous stab wounds which either or both could have died from had the stab wounds been just inches in a different direction. Both were hospitalized after the event with Sid having four puncture wounds and Anderson having twenty puncture wounds. After an argument in the lobby earlier that night, Sid went to Anderson’s door and instigated a fight. Sid used a chair against Arn. Arn then grabbed a pair of scissors off his hotel dresser. Charles Skaggs (a/k/a Too Cold Scorpio, Flash Funk) broke up the fight. Both Sid and Arn pressed chargses, but dropped the charges in favor of being able to return to the U.S. as soon as possible. Sid was shortly thereafter let go by WCW and Anderson returned to the ring three months later.

With Sid returning to Europe on the WWF’s two-day UK tour this past weekend, the WWF decided to suggest Sid may have gotten into similar trouble. On his Friday, Nov. 29 WWF 900 line report, Jim Ross said: “Apparently in London late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, we’re not sure of all the details, there was a physical altercation in London between Sycho Sid and Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart. This was not an in-ring incident, apparently. I do not have all the details other than there was some physicality involved. I’m not sure if it happened in the locker room or at the hotel. I know that sounds very sketchy, but we’re hearing conflicting reports. Until we get the right story I hate to go any further with this situation.” By his next report on Tuesday, Dec. 3 Ross didn’t add much clarification. He said Sid and Bret got into an altercation in the ring Wednesday night and then later that night “got into another altercation where they had to be separated by WWF officials and police officers, we understand, on Wednesday night in their hotel in London.”

- Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Certainly the most-read and most talked about article this past week was Joe Queenan's column "Average Joe" in the 11/30-12/6 TV Guide. The article, called "Get a Grip," was about the Monday night wrestling wars. It was a largely critical article, mainly of Milton Bradley and Nintendo for sponsoring either Raw and/or Nitro. Queenan called Monday night wrestling the "creepiest, most unnerving, least scientifically explainable, most downright bizarre (television) programming of all." Luckily for Queenan, the night he decided to investigate pro wrestling was the night the WWF gave him more ammunition for his thesis than he would ever need--the Pillman/Austin angle at Pillman's house. Not to say Monday Nitro came up unscathed, but the best Queenan could do to knock the program was talking about a "hefty (?), highly athletic woman named Reina Jubuki" and her womens match against Madusa on that evening's Nitro and making a few cute remarks about Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper. He then concluded that the two pro wrestling shows supplied "the most sadistic, stomach-turning, gross, psychologically discombobulating programming on television today." The opposite of that was this month's Live Magazine, which boasts a circulation of 400,000. It's a mail order magazine sent to people as puff articles based around their local ticket outlet mailers letting people know the entertainment events coming their way. Apparently the articles are mainly tradeoffs, since the magazine was selling WWF action figures and the article about Jerry Lawler was mainly a WWF puff piece. To its credit, Lawler came off good and the piece was largely accurate aside from some exaggerations about live attendance.

- Dave Scherer in The Wrestling Lariat: People in the wrestling business continue to stoop to new lows. If you watched "Livewire" Saturday morning you heard Jim Ross at the end of the show mention the brawl in London which involved Bret, Bulldog, Owen, Sid, and Austin in the ring. He then said it carried over after Bret and Sid had an altercation at the hotel. Hmmm. Why does a brawl in a hotel in England involving Sid sound familiar? Here's two guys, Arn Anderson and Sid, who one or both could have died from their melee a few years ago and the WWF is using it as a rib. Wonder what Sid thought about that.

- Wade Keller in the Pro Wrestling Torch: Jeff Katz, the 17 year old who hosted a weekly news update on the WCW 900 line during Gene Okerlund’s absence, reported that USA Network gave the WWF an ultimatum to increase ratings or Raw would be moved to Midnight on Monday nights. The WWF has added that to their list of slander perpetrated by WCW and said that USA has never told them they were considering moving Raw to midnight.

- Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Harlem Heat is said to be negotiating with WWF.

The biggest angle of the past week, which they aired on Raw on 12/2, was shot 11/27 in London, England. Sid was defending against Steve Austin and Austin KO'd him with the title belt. Davey Boy Smith then did a run-in attacking Austin. Sid then got mad at Smith because the ref DQ'd him because of Smith's interference, and was about to choke slam him when Bret Hart saved Smith, doing him the favor since Smith saved Hart on Raw. Austin then hit Hart with a chair and Sid choke slammed Hart. It wound with interviews where Austin was mad at Smith for costing him the title by interfering, Sid was mad at Smith for costing him the match, Bret was mad at Sid for choke slamming him and Austin for hitting him with a chair, Smith was mad at Austin saying he has a score to settle with him, and Owen was mad at Smith for not being focused on the tag title match with Razor & Diesel on 12/15. The London show and the Birmingham, England show the next night both sold out 7,000-arenas. In Birmingham, Sid beat Faarooq in 2:00 in the main event and fans left really pissed off about how short and bad the main event was. Sid was booed as champion in both London and last week in Montreal in matches with Austin. They also gave the impression that Sid and Bret had a hotel room brawl after the London match, which is tacky since it's playing off the real-life England hotel room brawl where Sid nearly killed Arn Anderson a few years back.

The triangle matches in late January at the big arena house shows with Sid, Bret and Shawn Michaels will be title matches.

Ahmed Johnson will be programmed with Goldust to give him wins on his return. Goldust is pretty much being phased down.

We don't have results yet, but the Dubai tour were four shows in the same 18,000-seat arena from 11/29 through 12/2. The first night was all tag matches since the guys were flying in from England, the second night was going to be a series of eight man elimination matches (The Dubai Survivor Series), the third night a Royal Rumble and the fourth night the Dubai King of the Ring tournament.

Achim Albrecht debuted on the tour which started on 11/30 in Lowell, MA. The first two nights he used the name Argo, the third night in Utica, NY he was called Barracus. His foe all three nights was trainer Tom Prichard, as Dr. X, who it was said carried the match. Reports were that he was huge, the match was limited to him doing a few power moves that Dr. Tom sold well for, had no crowd interaction but appeared to have some athletic ability. At the Lowell show, they announced a 6/10 Superstars taping in the same building.

Week of 12/9/1996 (Torch 12/14 & Observer 12/16):

- From Wade Keller in the Pro Wrestling Torch: Jim Ross reported on the WWF hotline all week that a woman filed assault charges against Shawn Michaels alleging he struck her in the face as he was heading toward the locker room after his match in Springfield, Mass. A court date is scheduled for later this month. It was a TV taping so the match and the ring exit is taped. Ross said he saw the tape and didn’t see anything that looked like someone getting struck in the face, so he said “it looks like somebody is looking for an easy payday” or a “nuisance” lawsuit.

Michaels made a Dec. 6 guest appearance on the number one AM station in Rochester, N.Y. to promote the Apr. 20 IYH. He was on for two hours and talked about wrestling, his life, his co-workers, and fan questions. He stayed within WWF storylines for the most part, but did call Hulk Hogan a “worthless human being” and “a total piece of sh–” which got edited off the show due to the seven second delay. He really loosened up when a porn star/stripper showed up topless wearing a leather thong. He also stayed around and chatted with employees at the radio station and was said to be a great interview guest.

- From Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: [On 12/6] in Scranton, Michaels got a substantial amount of boos against Goldust and apparently as he was doing his post-match routine, a lot of the male fans were throwing stuff at him and he abruptly stopped and stormed off.

- From Wade Keller in the Pro Wrestling Torch: Paul Heyman addressed several key issues regarding ECW’s future as ECW approaches confirmation of a Mar. 30 date on pay-per-view. Regarding the WWF-ECW working relationship, he sees it as two people who are under the gun from Ted Turner who realize there is a very powerful media conglomerate backing a rival organization that could drive them out of business. Heyman says there is nothing more to the WWF-ECW relationship than meets the eye and he does not have any desire to work for the WWF or have ECW officially work with the WWF on a larger level.

The WWF is reviving the angle (thus far only on their 900 line) of a woman receiving mystery gifts, but now Marlena is the recipient of anonymous gifts. Perhaps that angle will be played up on Shotgun since that show may provide Goldust with a forum for the sexually suggestive antics he used in the past that McMahon (or USA Network) felt were inappropriate for the USA Network

Lots of speculation has been taking place regarding reports that NBC may be looking to purchase USA Network. Reportedly NBC would dump much of USA’s programming.

- From Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: The four-show tour of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates was successful financially for Titan because they were sold shows for a high price, but the crowds were poor all four nights. Don't have anything in the way of results of the Survivor Series, tag team night or Royal Rumble shows, but the King of the Ring show on 12/2 was won by Bret Hart pinning Steve Austin in the finals.

The Hollywood Reporter had an ad from the WWF looking for a Director of Media Relations.

Initial reports on Achim Albrecht, who worked as Braccus all week against Tom Prichard in a hood, were encouraging.

Week of 12/16/1996 (Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling, Torch 12/21, Observer 12/23, & Lariat 12/26):

- From Bret Hart’s memoir: In West Palm Beach, the night of December 14, 1996, I slid under the sheets hurting so badly that I had no choice but to wash down a couple of pain pills, plug in my heating pad and smear Icy Hot over my knees and back. I was supposed to wrestle Sid in our title bout the next day on In Your House. Wrestling with Jim in the Hart Foundation in the early days, I used to feel like the zippy Porsche to Jim’s armored tank. Now I felt like an old race car with my dings hidden before every match under a coat of fresh paint.

- From Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: The World Wrestling Federation finished its 1996 pay-per-view schedule with a solid but unspectacular event on 12/15 from West Palm Beach, FL called "It's time."

The booking for the show was clearly well thought out, as the matches that on paper didn't look good, were given enough outside distractions to at least attempt to overcome the obstacles. The show was largely well received, although it should be noted that the far lighter response to this show that we received (even lighter than the response to events like the recent MARS and Pancrase shows that didn't even measure a blip on the buy rate scale) doesn't bode well for the buy rate. Even with Bret Hart challenging for the title in a scenario in which a solid percentage of the public should have figured as a title change, nobody figured between the time of the year and the already intense hype for Royal Rumble as the next big show, that this was going to be anything but a throwaway show.

There was nothing for the all-time highlights reel, nor was anything all that bad. The lone negative was a cumulative thing, in that five of the six television matches had run-ins, three directly leading to the finish. While the booking of none of the matches individually was bad (well, other than the Rocky Maivia vs. Salvatore Sincere deal because there is no point in doing a run-in finish in that type of a prelim match on a PPV when the show is going to consist of nothing but run-ins), the cumulative effect was that by the time the main event came and the run-in was important for long-term storyline, it just seemed like another finish.

Sid's scoring the clean pin using his power bomb on Bret Hart in the main event was logical long-term booking, but somewhat gutsy considering the amount of money the company has invested in Hart and Sid's track record. It's pretty clear that Shawn Michaels should get the title at Royal Rumble, and that Hart is destined for the strap after that, presumably at Wrestlemania. This leaves Sid as the obvious challenger for Hart since he holds wins over both Hart and Michaels, and if anything, builds up more heat for the triangle matches for the title, which I suppose Michaels will be going over in, that take place on major shows after Rumble. This leaves Michaels after dropping the strap also in a strong position since theoretically he'll have beaten both Hart and Michaels in those triangle matches leading to the title loss. I'm figuring at some point in there Steve Austin will get a win over one of the aforementioned three so he'll also be positioned in that category for a title feud with Hart later in 1997.

Hart wasn't able to carry Sid to anywhere close to the match Michaels was, which is something for their own internal bragging rights. The show had satellite transmission problems at various points, which were annoying but not enough to ruin the show, and both Viewers Choice and Request offered immediate free replay showings to everyone who had ordered.

- Wade Keller adds in the Torch that: The replay, though, actually had the same interruptions.

- Back to Dave Meltzer in the Obsevrer: The show drew a legitimate sellout of 5,708 (4,581 paying $69,018) to the West Palm Beach Memorial Auditorium.

- In a quick note from Wade in the Torch: An interview aired with Michaels. He said as he defended the WWF Title for eight months, Bret sat and passed judgement on him from his home in Calgary. He said he is a professional and would be able to sit at ringside and not interfere. “I’m an emotional wreck and be careful or I might wreck on you, Hitman,” he said.

- Back to Dave in the Observer: A. Rocky Maivia (Duane Johnson) defeated Salvatore Sincere (Tom Brandi) via DQ in 6:01 due to interference from Jim Cornette. Cornette was managing Sincere as revenge against Maivia, who had turned down his managerial advances a few weeks earlier on a Superstars show. They announced that Rocky Johnson was at the show although he was never shown on camera. Maivia looked green but showed athletic potential and the match was at least watchable. After Maivia used his shoulder breaker finisher, Cornette hit the ring. Maivia got up, Cornette fainted dead in his tracks and the ref saw him and called for the DQ. *1/4

Before the actual PPV started, they did a brief angle. Jim Ross was supposed to be interviewing Bret Hart, but in the background you could see Hunter Hearst Helmsley put the moves of Marlena, whose look they've changed to be more feminine and attractive from her hard cigar smoking look in which they were trying to get her over without saying it as a lesbian. In a surprise, Arturo Rivera, the legendary AAA wrestling announcer, was part of the Spanish language broadcast team.

1. Flash Funk (Charles Skaggs) pinned Leif Cassidy (Allan Sarven) in 10:34. These two did a lot of high risk spots but as far as working cohesively together, it was a disappointment. Not only were there several missed spots, but Funk was moving slow and the two weren't smooth and this had the look of two indie wrestlers who do a lot of Japanese and Mexican spots, although they did an innovative spot where Cassidy dropped Funk on his face as he was going for the spinning head scissors. At one point Cassidy did a tremendous belly-to-belly on Funk over the top rope. He also springboarded off the middle rope into a somersault plancha and did a Muto style wind sprint clothesline. After Cassidy, who carried most of the match, missed a moonsault off the middle rope, Funk did a handspring into a kick and a running dive over the top rope to the floor. Funk did several big moves leading to near falls before getting the pin with the Scorpio splash, which Jim Ross called a shooting star press.

2. Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith beat Razor Ramon (Rick Bogner) & Diesel (Glen Jacobs) to retain the WWF tag titles in 10:45. During this match Ross said that none of the four wrestlers in the ring were between the ages of 45 and 50, bald or had any artificial body parts. There are times to say lines like that, but I'm not sure this was the time. Rick Bogner isn't exactly Ric Flair or Roddy Piper when it comes to workrate or charisma. Pierroth Jr. and Cibernetico came out, with Cibernetico ripping off his shirt. Ross billed the two as high fliers and big risk takers. That was about the funniest line of the year and boy are they in for a surprise. Then they left and Steve Austin came out. Smith jumped Austin and all the officials came out to break it up and haul Austin out. Ramon looked pretty bad while Diesel looked at least passable. Hart & Smith were the faces and worked as the faces, with Hart getting heat put on him most of the match until hot tagging Smith at the finish. Smith went for the powerslam on Ramon, but he got out of it and set up the Razor's edge. Hart delivered a spin kick onto Razor and he fell backwards and Smith scored the pin. Austin immediately hit the ring and clipped Smith. It appeared from the camera angle that Hart saw him coming and attempted to do nothing to stop him, so they may have this Smith vs. Austin storyline play out that Owen and Austin were working together from the start (remember the television interview where Hart & Pillman were together putting over Austin as the reason Bret would he afraid to return?) and you can see Bret & Davey vs. Owen & Austin tag feud coming. Match was okay but the finish was real good. **1/4

Ahmed Johnson did an interview while the NWO, er, I mean NOD was on the balcony yelling back. Faarooq called Johnson an Uncle Tom, which is a term from the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier feud which was 25 years ago. The angle was pretty good. They announced Johnson vs. Faarooq and Undertaker vs. Vader for the Royal Rumble undercard. The satellite transmission got screwed up as they were announcing participants in the Rumble but names clearly announced were Cibernetico, Austin, Maivia, Mankind and Jake Roberts.

3. Marc Mero beat Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Paul Levesque) via count out so Helmsley retained the IC title in 14:03. In the pre-match video of the feud, they transposed a series of events. It's been changed from when Helmsley rammed the cart into Mr. Perfect's knee having taken place instead of before the Mero-Helmsley title match and the whole angle being a work within a work, to the worked angle now being a shoot and having taken place after Helmsley had won the title as Helmsley eliminating Perfect from the scene with the cart deal. Perfect's name was brought up several times, which under normal circumstances would make one think he's going to return as a face to feud with Helmsley down the road because that's the impression the announcers left us with. Helmsley has new entrance music which is the same song that is the theme of the NBC show "Suddenly Susan." Ross and McMahon did this bit about Helmsley being court martialed in military school when he was a teenager and McMahon acted shocked at what type of a person that would happen to which was an inside joke as I believe that was a scene from McMahon's childhood. Anyway, these two had easily the best worked match on the show but also the worst finish on the show. After a ref bump, Helmsley grabbed the title belt from Howard Finkel but Mero beat him to the punch and used a Japanese rolling crotch hold. The ref recovered after a long period and counted to two before Helmsley kicked out. Mero used a somersault plancha on Helmsley. Goldust then came out, grabbed the title belt and went to hit Helmsley with it (because of the Marlena angle during the free-for-all) but he ducked and hit Mero. He then hit Helmsley so both were knocked out. Mero just beat the longest ten count in history to get in and win the match. The most famous time this finished was used was in 1986 for an IWGP title match where Inoki (in the Mero spot) beat Hogan (in the Helmsley spot) for the belt with Goldust basically in Choshu's shoes and the fans loved the finish that time so much that the post-match riot took a ton of cops to quell and resulted in New Japan being banned from using Tokyo Sumo Hall and killing their big show business for about a one year period. After the match, Mero used a shooting star press (a real one) on Helmsley and then Goldust attacked Helmsley in the aisle. ***1/4

4. Undertaker (Mark Calaway) beat Executioner (Terry Gordy) in an Armageddon rules match, which is basically the same rules as a 70s NWA Texas death match (falls don't count, match continues until one man can't answer the bell) at 11:31. The two worked about 4:00 with a fast-pace. It was decent, but you could tell it couldn't last. At this point Mankind came in to save the show. It turned into a handicap match for several minutes. Undertaker made a comeback and threw Mankind threw the window of the house set-up in the back for the In Your House theme, and then threw Mankind back out the front door. Taker and Executioner then brawled backstage while all the officials put Mankind in a straight jacket in the ring. The brawl wound up with Executioner taking a bump into the pond which was just outside the building. They wound up back in the ring with Undertaker winning the first fall over a soaked Executioner with a tombstone in 11:08, and Executioner not being able to answer the ten count after the fall. **112

5. Sid (Sid Eudy) retained the WWF title beating Bret Hart in 17:03. Shawn Michaels was at ringside with several days growth of beard trying to look like a cross between Brad Pitt and Kevin Nash. He was firing shoot comments at Hart saying he's the most arrogant and obnoxious wrestler in the WWF, and at Sid, saying he was the most expensive piece of luggage in the WWF because if it wasn't for guys like him carrying Sid every night he'd he a big zero. You can't argue the point, but it is something new to have the champion of a promotion's total lack of ability used within their own storylines. I'm just waiting for the day somebody in WCW builds up an angle with Hogan by saying that he's won all those matches because he insisted on booking his own finishes. Maybe we're a few years from that one. Hart carried it to an above average match using his regular arsenal, dominating most of the way since he was doing the job at the end. After Sid kicked out of the scorpion, Hart was on the floor and Austin came out and clipped him. This brought out Owen Hart & Smith, the latter with his knee all taped up and limping and he went after Austin. Sid took advantage. At one point Hart tried to get a chair and Michaels let him have his chair, but Sid hit Hart from behind before he could use it. Sid then jumped down and Michaels was going to let him use the chair as well, but Sid instead shoved Michaels into the guard rail. Michaels got on the apron to go after Sid, but wound up colliding with Hart, who was then pinned after a power bomb. After the match Hart attacked Michaels and pounded him into the ground. Michaels seemed thrilled that a lot of fans were cheering Hart for doing so and lost his cool and started swearing at a fan who was making fun of him. ***

- From Wade Keller in the Pro Wrestling Torch: The following are some of Shawn Michaels’s noteworthy statements made during the main event of IYH: It’s Time...

• “I do my best to be obnoxious, but I can’t even hang with the Hitman anymore. He outdoes everybody as far as being pompous and arrogant. As far as I’m concerned, this time I’ll turn him into nothing but a bitter, bitter (wrestler).” Jim Ross in response: “I know what it is to have to work with someone who is pompous.”
• “Sid is the WWF’s most expensive piece of luggage because we’ve got guys like me and other WWF stars who have to carry him here and carry him there. Without us, he’s a zero.”
• “We’re all different individuals. Am I the only one in the WWF who has that figured out? Can we all be different or do we all have to be vanilla and boring like Bret? God forbid we smile once in a while or we have an emotion here or there. It’s called real life, folks. Get to know it.”
• “What bothers me is that’s his (Bret Hart’s) top speed. That’s all Bret’s got. He ain’t the quickest guy in the world. Physically Bret isn’t past his prime, but mentally he’s changed, he’s not the same, he’s gotten bitter like so many people do after a matter of time.”
• “The truth has always scared guys in this business. That’s the way it goes.”

- From Bret Hart’s memoir: Our match turned out to be surprisingly good. Sid had come to respect me because I helped him when I could. During our match, Shawn sat with Jim Ross at the announcers’ table ranting about his God-given right to live his life as he chose. Apparently the remark I’d made a month earlier about him posing for Playgirl had been eating away at him the whole time. Shawn got involved in the finish by climbing on the ring apron, where we collided, allowing Sid to jackknife powerbomb me to the mat for the win. I furiously jumped out and pulled Shawn’s shirt over his head like we were in a hockey fight and pretended to beat him senseless. It looked fantastic. Sid came back to the dressing room thrilled with how it went, and Shawn seemed nothing but upbeat. But over the next two days of TVs in Florida he was noticeably distant with me. When I told Vince that I was concerned that I was pissing Shawn off, he downplayed it. Still, I asked him to clarify things for both me and Shawn, so we could do this thing right. He wouldn’t listen. Instead of us sorting things out, Shawn went out and did an angry in-ring interview, with me as the target of his rage. I was disappointed to see him lose his babyface composure. I was thinking, Oh, Shawn, don’t do this . . . stay humble . . . I’m only workin’ . . . let me be the heel. I shook my head in utter dismay trying to figure out what was happening between us.

- Off-air notes from Wade in the Torch: Before “IYH: It’s Time” went on the air, Acheim Albrecht defeated Tom Prichard in a dark match. After IYH went off pay-per-view, Austin beat Goldust and Michaels beat Mankind. Michaels played more of a babyface role against Mankind than he did earlier in the night on pay-per-view although when a fan threw a soda at him, he caught the soda and gave the fan the finger. Sunny, dressed as Santa, also handed out WWF merchandise to fans.

- Back to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Monday Night Raw tapings on 12/16 from Tampa, FL before an estimated 6,000 fans (2,925 paying $60,901). They opened with two warm-up matches before the live show began. Vader wrestled Steve Austin in a ***1/4 match lasting 7:13 before Bret Hart, who was doing commentary, clipped Austin and put him in the sharpshooter. Vader attacked Bret since he caused him to lose via DO, and then Bret put Austin back in the sharpshooter until the officials dragged him off. Razor & Diesel beat Godwinns. Most notable about this match was the loud "NWO" chants during this match and the ensuing interview with Sid. Doug Furnas & Phil I,aFon beat Dr. X (Tom Prichard) & T.L. Hopper. They did an angle turning Goldust both heterosexual and babyface, since the two go hand-in-hand. Marlena, with Marc Mero by her side, beat Jerry Lawler, with Hunter Hearst Helmsley by his side, in the karate fighters championship match. Lawler and Helmsley then attacked Mero and Goldust did a run-in and chased Helmsley away. Mero and Helmsley then brawled to the back leaving Goldust and Lawler in the ring. Lawler was cowering and said he had no problem with Goldust and he should be happy a guy like Helmsley who is rich and good-looking and the IC champ is after Marlena and finally, very lightly, asked Goldust if he was a queer and Goldust responded "No" loudly and decked him and Marlena came out with her conquering hero. Add Helmsley vs. Goldust for the IC title to the Rumble show. Billy Gunn wrestled Bart Gunn and they did the Shawn Michaels angle over again, but this time nobody was buying it. Billy supposedly broke his neck and laid there not moving while Billy and Bares wife hit the ring (if it was there wives as I'm not certain in this case). Billy's wife was overacting while Bart was acting distraught at what he'd done to his so-called brother.

An important note that has been seemingly overlooked by everyone in regard to the Monday night ratings war. While Nitro was clearly dominant since the shift to the two—hour format and Raw (and WWF across the board) has significantly declined this past year, Raw is still doing better than the network's average, which would theoretically mean it is in no danger of being canceled. Raw is still generally the highest rated show on USA every Monday night.

We got some demographic figures for the Nitro vs. Raw on 12/9. In Men 18-34, Nitro had a 66% market share or basically almost double the audience of Raw; Men 35-54 it had a 58% share; Men 55+ it had a 68% share; Women 18-34 it had a 54% share; Women 35-54 it had a 57% share; Women 55+ 59% WWF had the edge in kids slightly with a 51% share, and by a gigantic margin in teenagers with a 74% market share.

- Dave Scherer adds this in the Wrestling Lariat: [Vince] McMahon is said to want to use this show as a way to "change" wrestling and he says he has a network of stations lined up. We'll see.

- Back to Wade in the Torch: Randy Savage could make his return to WCW as soon as Starrcade. The WWF has publicly said Savage is not returning the the WWF in order to stop the rumors. There were some reports that part of Savage’s agreement to return was that WCW continue to employ Elizabeth and hire his brother Lanny Poffo.

Sources say Harlem Heat are not going to the WWF despite internet rumors of such for the last three months.

- From Dave Scherer in the Wrestling Lariat: This past week, WCW executive vice president went over to France and came away with his company a million dollars richer. And in the process, the WWF became much poorer. As broken on the Prodigy service by wrestling board leader Bob Ryder, Bischoff cut a 3 year deal worth more than a million per anum with the Paris based Canal + network to start airing the WCW Nitro TV show. The station is the US equivalent of ABC, CBS, or NBC. The deal has, for WCW, the double perk of taking the spot of WWF wrestling, which had aired on the station for the past ten years. Ryder also reported that Bischoff said that WCW had a great year, coming in 450% over budget. Now, while that does not equate to profit, it is still impressive.

And while the WWF does not run shows in France, the significance of this deal can not be discounted. The monetary loss is obvious, as no business wants to lose a million dollars a year. Possibly more important though is the shot that the deal will level at the morale of those in the WWF. It has been a horrible year for the folks in Stamford. WCW has crushed them in the cable ratings, made in roads into areas previously dominated by the WWF, and in the opinion of almost everyone, become the number one promotion in the US. As I have said before, the next year will be the true barometer of where the legend of the genius of Vince McMahon will fall in folklore. If he can turn the situation around and take back the place as the number one promotion in the US, there will be no doubt as to his place as the greatest of all time. If not, he will just fall into the category of a revolutionary.

Week of 12/23/1996 (Torch 12/28 & Observer 12/30):

- From Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Notes from the WWF Superstars taping on 12/17 in Daytona Beach, FL with 2,055 paying $28,344. Mike Awesome (The Gladiator in FMW, who is the current world heavyweight champion in that promotion) got a try-out match losing to Aldo Montoya. Former WCW referee Randy Eller was also given a try-out. Kind of interesting to see a world champion in one promotion job for Montoya. Goldust beat Executioner (Terry Gordy) and after the match Paul Bearer turned on Executioner and hit him with the urn and left him laying. It's pretty well acknowledged that the Gordy experiment didn't work. Not sure if Bearer turning on Executioner will or won't air on television as there was a chance it wouldn't, and Executioner isn't finished yet although probably after mid-January, if he's even around, he won't be getting any push at all.

They are selling the Billy Gunn angle as if he's confined to a wheelchair due to neck injuries. Bart Gunn was on Live Wire all apologetic. It sounds to me like they are re-doing the Sandman/Tommy Dreamer angle from a few years ago where the babyface is all apologetic about the injury, only at the end to be done in because the heel was faking the injury all along. They were pushing how Billy had a wife and two children, which is funny only because just a few weeks earlier they were still playing up the angle about Billy being obsessed with Sunny and pushed the idea of a romance between the two of them most of the summer. I know that the women who played Billy's wife was actually a front office employee and not really his wife. Not sure about the role of Bart's wife.

WWF did a trivia fact on one of its shows saying the promotion is broadcast in seven different languages. One of them listed was Japanese, which ruined the credibility of the piece because WWF isn't broadcast in Japanese.

Honkytonk Man announced on the 12/23 Raw that he was coming in as a manager and is looking for the right charge. Idea for HTM is to manage and perhaps do an occasional match playing a managers role.

Don't be surprised to see a break-up of Jim Cornette and Vader. Because Cornette is doing the Sunday Superstars show live, he can't go on the road for tours and they are attempting to use as managers people they can send on the road.

We've got some pretty detailed reports on the goings on in Puerto Rico. There are two major promotions there, the long-time dominant office, Carlos Colon's WWC, and the rival WWA owned by former wrestler Felix Lopez (Barrabas Sr.) which is booked by Juan Rivera (WWF's Savio Vega). The Americans that have worked for WWC of late are Jim Steele, Skull Von Crush, Sean Morley, D-Lo Brown, Buddy Landel, Black Feather and Ricky Santana. WWA ran major shows over this past weekend with 12/20 in Arecibo headlined by Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Savio Vega for the IC title, El Bronco vs. Jake Roberts for the Puerto Rican title, Duke Droese vs. Sid and Pulgarcito vs. Dutch Mantel. 12/21 in San German was Vega defending the WWA world championship against Sid, Helmsley vs. Roberts and Droese & Pulgarcito vs. Bronco & Mantel. The biggest weekend show was 12/22 in Caguas with Vega vs. Sid in a title vs. title match, Bronco again defending the P.R. title against Roberts and Helmsley defending the IC title against Droese. The Helmsley-Droese match was pushed from the footage of the old WWF angle which aired over the weekend on WWA television where Helmsley chopped off Droese's hair, and also on the weekend television they aired the last 5:00 of the Sid vs. Bret Hart PPV match to get Sid over as champion and announced that in 1997, both Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels would be coming in, and also aired the Wrestlemania match with Sid vs. Hulk Hogan from 1992. Helmsley will be managed in this group by The Wizard (Victor Quinones).