From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze)
Subject: Wrestling TidBits   -   01/21
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 16:36:16 GMT

 - It's been confirmed everywhere by now.  Ric Flair will return to WCW
   around 02/15/93.  The reason being given everywhere is that
   Vince McMahon had planned to start "demoting" Flair, dropping him 
   to mid-card status where he would put over babyfaces getting a push.
   Flair apparently had an out clause in his contract and Vince and he
   split on amicable terms.  It's rumoured that Ric will be earning more
   with WCW than he was earning in his last stint there.  If you recall,
   at the time he was earning $750000 a year and was being pushed to take
   a salary cut.  Talk now is that he'll be making in the $1M range.  
   This seems hard to believe, especially with Bill Watts cutting costs
   on everybody else and only offering $1000 per night max to top stars
   getting new contracts.  But Watts has a lot of respect for Flair, so
   anything is possible.  Reports have always been that Flair was looking
   forward to returning to WCW once the creative team that he had problems
   with was replaced.  Somebody on the net mentioned that Flair has looked
   good recently and that we could conclude that his WWF stint was good for
   him.  On the contrary, I would conclude that Flair is priming himself
   for his return to WCW.
     Ric Flair will be coming in as a babyface, presumably debuting at
   the 02/21/93 SuperBrawl III PPV from Asheville, NC, and rumours abound 
   that he'll win the world title from Big Van Vader shortly after 
   his arrival, thus freeing Vader up to do a short Japan tour.  
     Also at SuperBrawl III, Van Vader has challenged Sting to meet him
   in his White Castle of Fear.  This will supposedly be advertised in
   weeks to come as a non-title gimmick match.  Hmmm.  Perhaps this adds
   more credence to Vader losing the strap to Flair.  The Great Muta is
   expected to defend his NWA Title against Barry Windham at the PPV.
   Of course, it would make sense to have Windham win the strap and 
   then have Windham vs. Flair title unification matches.  But with
   the prestige that the NWA name has in Japan and the fact that Muta
   has essentially unified the NWA & IWGP Titles, this might be hard
   to work out.  Finally, it's expected that the Rock'n'Roll Express
   will defend the Smoky Mountain tag titles against the Heavenly
   Bodies on the show.  It will be interesting to see how they deal
   with Jim Cornette.

 - Rick Steamboat signed a new one-year contract with WCW.  

 - As I mentioned last time, it looks like Davey Boy Smith is coming
   to WCW.  No word on when he'll debut.  The Dynamite Kid has come
   out of retirement to work a bit in Japan.  This has caused rumours
   to fly about reuniting the British Bulldogs in WCW.

 - It's also strongly rumoured that Sid Vicious will return to WCW,
   at least until softball season gets going ;-).  Talk is that Sid
   will also be brought in as a babyface.  Has anybody figured out
   the angle yet?  Rumour has it that Ric Flair, Sid Vicious, Cactus
   Jack, and Sting will join forces.  Gee, in this scenario, I wonder
   which guys will turn heel on whom?  

 - WWF has it's annual Royal Rumble PPV on 01/24/93 from Sacramento.  
   The line-up will include: 
     - Bret Hart vs. Razor Ramon for the WWF Title
     - Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Janetty for the IC Title
     - Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Big Boss Man
     - Steiner Brothers vs. Beverly Brothers
     - 30-man Royal Rumble, the winner of which will get a WWF Title shot
       at WrestleMania.
   28 of the participants of the Rumble will be:
   Bob Backlund, Berzerker, Carlitos Colon, Damien Demento,
   Ted DiBiase, Jim Duggan, Earthquake, Head Shrinker Fatu, Ric Flair, 
   Owen Hart, Curt Hennig, Jerry Lawler, Rick Martel, 
   Nasty Boy Brian Nobbs, Repo-Man, Nasty Boy Jerry Saggs,
   Head Shrinker Samu, Tito Santana, Randy Savage, Papa Shango,
   Irwin R. Shyster, Tatanka, Genichiro Tenryu, Typhoon, Undertaker, 
   Virgil, Koko B. Ware, Yokozuna.
     Still no word on who will be replacing Nailz.  Crush will drop out
   of the event to sell his injury at the hands of Doink the Clown.  I
   guess we might expect Doink the Clown to make his PPV wrestling debut
   in the Rumble.  
     Also, Jim Duggan was demolished by Yokozuna at a recent TV taping,
   so if this airs before the PPV, he may not be there.  If not, maybe 
   they'll air a clip at the Rumble to give Yokozuna some heat.
     Narcissus (Lex Luger) will appear at the Royal Rumble, although it's 
   unclear whether he'll be able to work or not.  There is some talk that
   WCW has let him out of his contract early.
     Apparently Paul Diamond wasn't let go afterall by the WWF.  So we may
   expect to see Max Moon surface at the Royal Rumble.  Lance Cassidy's
   status is still in question, too.  We might still expect to see one
   of these guys against Terry Taylor on the PPV.
     Hopefully, the person on the net who is going to the San Jose taping
   the night after the PPV will post a summary.

 - Harvey Whippleman will be introducing his latest protege shortly.  It's
   expected that it will be El Gigante (not under that name, of course).
   He may well debut at the Royal Rumble.

 - I found the past WCW Saturday Night show quite interesting.  Having
   gotten the STF over as a submission hold, Bill Watts seems to be moving
   on to the next hold.  I was completely amazed to see Max Pain's
   squash wherein he did a German suplex and then put on the Fujiwara
   armbar for a submission.  If you haven't seen much Japanese wrestling,
   you have no idea how over the Fujiwara armbar is.  If that move gets
   applied the crowd goes nuts!  

 - Talk is that Terry Taylor will be moved to an announcing job with
   the WWF.

 - Randy Savage also seems to be on his way out of active wrestling.
   Talk has him being kept around as an announcer too.

 - WWF has WrestleMania on 04/04/93 at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.
   Talk continues that Hulk Hogan will appear and not wrestle at the
   show.  The main event will have the WWF champ defend against the 
   winner of the Royal Rumble.  The tentative line-up looks like this:
    - Bret Hart vs. Royal Rumble winner (Yokozuna?)
    - Curt Hennig vs. Lex Luger
    - Steiners vs. Money, Inc. for the WWF Tag Titles
    - Crush vs. Doink the Clown

 - Rick Rude will apparently stay on with WCW.  He is scheduled to 
   return to the ring in March.  In the meantime, Paul Orndroff will
   pick up Rude's bookings.  Orndorff has joined WCW full time.

                                                           Herb...
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