From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze)
Subject: Wrestling TidBits   -   08/20
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 15:45:02 GMT

 - I was kind of amused to see the SummerSlam promo interviews with
   Diana Smith and Bruce Hart this weekend.  In particular, Bruce's
   casting as a heel in his interview was pretty surprising.  Both
   in the ring and out of the ring as the booker of Calgary, Bruce
   always seemed to be a no-nonsense kind of guy.  And for Gorilla
   Monsoon to rail on against Bruce after the interview ("He's 
   probably not even a real Hart," etc.) was even weirder.  And
   if Vince really does fly *all* the Harts to London to see the
   show live, wouldn't that put a non-negligible dent in the live
   gate?  ;-)

 - The WWF has it's SummerSlam PPV scheduled for August 31st (to be
   taped at Wembley Stadium in London, England, on August 29th).
   The line-up is as follows: 
     - Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior for the WWF Title
     - Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith for the IC Title
     - Undertaker vs. Kamala
     - Shawn Michaels vs. Rick Martel
     - Money Inc. vs. Legion of Doom 
     - Beverly Brothers vs. Natural Disasters
     - Tatanka vs. Berzerker
     - Crush vs. Repo-Man 
     - Nailz vs. Virgil
     - Jim Duggan & The Sheepwhackers vs. The Mountie & The Nasty Boys
     - Papa Shango vs. Tito Santana  
   Columnists are calling the current Savage vs. Ric Flair matches
   Savage's final run before he retires from the sport.  

 - WCW has a Clash of Champions scheduled for September 2nd on WTBS.
   Matches will include Ron Simmons vs. Cactus Jack for the WCW Title,
   Sting & Nikita Koloff & Steiners vs. Jake Roberts & Rick Rude &
   Van Vader & Super Invader, some highlights from the NWA Singles
   tourney, and it looks like Bill Watts will finally put into motion
   the abolition of the "no-off-the-top-rope-moves" rule when he gives
   fans the chance to vote on it (I can see it now: during the main
   event, they flash "For Rule: 51%, Against Rule: 49%" with the 900
   number to call to make your vote count). 

 - With all this talk on the news and in the papers about Sunday being 
   the anniversary of the Elvis Presley's death, I can't help but think
   that Vince McMahon missed out on great promotional opportunity.  
   Although Wayne Ferris and he are probably not on the greatest of
   terms, I wondered what the WWF could have done if they had the
   Honky Tonk Man in the promotion.  Honky Tonk could have launched
   one of "his own" contests to decide what stamp of him should be 
   considered for postal release: the younger, title-hungry Honky
   Tonk Man, or the more established, IC champ Honky Tonk Man.  
   The Undertaker could have feuded with him, given him a tombstone
   piledriver, and bodybagged him and perhaps even begun to lay him
   to rest.  Many fans would conclude that the King-clone was dead,
   until Papa Shango appeared, shaking and scarily rolling his eyes,
   to cast a spell that would cause Honky Tonk to stand up in the
   midst of the Undertaker's funeral program.  The debate could rage
   whether the "King" is dead or the living-dead.

 - Some more highlights from the 9 videos of old North American 
   stuff that I received a couple of weeks ago:
   - Chris Benoit vs. Gama Singh from 04/09/88, Calgary. 
       Benoit won the Commonwealth Midheavyweight Title in this
     match.  The match was very good, with Gama being surprisingly
     unirritating - he always puts on a pretty good show and can
     work relatively hard, but often cheats way too much.  Benoit
     is always great to watch and was his usual whirling-dervish
     self.  At the finish, with the ref down, Gama was holding
     Benoit in a full nelson and one of the Karachi Vice henchmen
     (Gary Allbright, playing Makhan Singh's (aka. Norman, Mike Shaw)
     brother) threw powder at him.  Benoit ducked, Gama took the
     powder, and Benoit got a cover and pin.  All the faces  
     (Pillman, Biff Wellington, Owen Hart, Bruce Hart, etc.)
     flooded the ring and poured champagne over Benoit and Chris
     did a great victory interview.   
   - Kevin & Mike von Erich vs. Rick Rood & Dingo Warrior from 1986, WCCW.
       The match was really quite terrible.  It was just sort of 
     fun seeing Rick & Warrior on the same team and seeing them
     come to blows at the end of the match.  Rick was fun to watch;
     Dingo was unwatchable.  
   - Dump Matsumoto vs. Itsuki Yamazaki from Nov/Dec 1986, All Japan Women.
       You just gotta love Dump.  This match was a great brawl, involving
     an oil can, a chain, a stick, chairs, and a scissor.  Dump was
     at her brutal best.  At one point, she cut wads of hair off
     Yamazaki's head with the scissors.  It all seemed quite dangerous,
     as she waved her scissor-holding hand around, and all the attendants
     flooded the ring and tried to disarm her.  This was from the Tempo
     network, so the commentary was in English, which actually weakened
     the match.  Yamazaki is more famous as being half of the Jumping
     Bomb Angels.
   - Leilani Kai vs. Chigusa Nagayo from Nov/Dec 1986, All Japan Women.
       Kai won the All Pacific title from Chigusa in thie match.  The
     match wasn't bad, but Chigusa has certainly had better.  The fans
     were so hot in this match, though, chanting "Chi-gu-sa" like mad.
     I don't think they could believe it when she did the job.  Again
     the English commentary hurt the match, probably because they
     lower the crowd noise when they dub the commentary in.
   - Bull Nakano vs. Noriyo Tateno from Nov/Dec 1986, All Japan Women. 
       Tateno is more famous as being the other half of the Jumping
     Bomb Angels.  Nakano looked svelte in this match, and I loved
     her funky blue hairdo.   
   - Eric Embry vs. Steve Casey (cage match)
       The match sucked, but I was surprised that Embry didn't juice
     a gusher, puke, eat dogfood, or moon the crowd, or something.
     All I've ever of Embry is the lovely things he's done in the ring.
   - Chris Benoit & Biff Wellington vs. The Black Hearts, Calgary.
       There were two matches between these teams, from 12/04/89
     and 12/11/89.  They were both very good.  The Black Hearts
     look light, with physiques resembling the Lightning Kid.  
     But they can work well.  I can't say enough about Benoit.
   - The Beach Boys in Portland, 1988.
       Okay, so they're Buddy Rose & Avalanche Paul Neu (who would
     go on to become P.N.News).  I don't know why, but I enjoyed
     their debut and subsequent matches.  I've always liked Buddy's
     interview character.
   Right now, I still have a few tapes of Portland left to watch.
   I'm fairly close to the end of 1988, with Art Barr becoming
   Beetlejuice in the next couple of episodes.  The first few shows
   from 1991 all have Roddy Piper appearing too.  I don't think that 
   any one show was spectacular or anything, but they are fun to 
   watch in order.  Don Owen just cracks me up too.

 - I received phone confirmation that a 24 pound, 36 videotape
   package was lugged to the post office on Tuesday morning as
   the tapes begin their trip to me.  The package required $35
   in postage!  

                                                                Herb...