From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze)
Subject: Wrestling TidBits   -   01/28
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 18:05:51 GMT


 - First, a short walk through the world of Sumo, which has been in the
   news in North America quite a bit as of late.  After 8 months without
   considering anybody for grand champion status, the Japan Sumo
   Association awarded Chad Rowan, a 6-foot-8, 466-pound Hawaiian,
   the rank of yokozuna, making him the first foreign yokozuna ever
   and the 64th yokozuna in the history of the sport.  Last year,
   Noboru Kojima, a member of the yokozuna selection committee,
   cited a need for special dignity in addition to the standard
   requirement of two two consecutive tournament victories (or
   a record of equal worth).  Shunichi Suzuki, Yokyo's governer
   and one of the 12 cvommittee members, had mentioned prior to
   the announcement that Chad Rowan, known as Akebono (Sunrise)
   in the Sumo world, was most suitable for the award.  The meeting
   took place on Monday to discuss whether Akebono had the required
   spirit, technique and physique.  The only other active Sumo wrestler 
   with three tournament victories is Salevaa Fuauli Atisanoe, known
   as Konishiki in the ring - he's also Hawaiian.  Konishiki, of course,
   would definitely not show the proper amount of dignity to get the
   nod.  Akebono's made the following comments after accepting the
   award: "I humble accept, and will devote myself in practice and
   promise not to defile the status of grand champion."
     Of course, this prompted much media attention, none more interesting,
   IMO, than the interview in today's Toronto Star with former Sumo
   wrestler John Tenta, better know as Earthquake to pro-wrestling fans.
   Tenta, known as Kototenza (Heavenly Mountain Harp) in the Sumo
   world, wrestled as a Sumo in 1986.  He had 24 consecutive victories
   in the first of that year.  He says "I thought (becoming grand champion)
   was possible if I could have stuck it out.  The guys up in the top
   division now are guys I used to beat up in practice."  But Tenta
   didn't had problems adjusting to the rigid world of Sumo.  He hated
   the food.  And part of the tasks of the junior wrestlers was to bathe
   a senior wrestle, help him get into his underwear and tuck him into
   bed.  John says "I wasn't thrilled about having to wash another man's
   body, but that's Sumo, it has its own lifestyle.  But I decided if
   I ever made it up the rank, I would wash my own body, thank you."
   He also suffered from racism and culture shock.  And the sport took
   its toll on him physically as well.  His knees and ankles ached and
   his stable master told him training was the cure.  Says John, "When
   I started to get blood posining in one of my feet, I didn't agree with 
   him."  Push came to shove when Tenta was at a tournament in Nagoya.
   He told team officials he was going to get a bite to eat.  Instead
   he hopped on a train to Tokyo and caught the next flight home to
   Vancouver.  His defection got front page news coverage in the 
   Japanese sports papers.  He says "It was not one of my prouder
   moments, but I did what I thought I had to do at the time.  I tried
   to tell them I wanted out, but they told me I couldn't quit.  They
   said the stable master would lose face, the sumo world would lose
   face.  I felt "Gee, I can't do this to them."  But in the end,
   I had to think of myself and just took off.  I think they would
   have physically forced me to stay if they knew my thoughts."
   He talke a bit about the respect he was given for being part of
   the Sumo world, saying it was more than the celebrity that the 
   WWF offers.  Finally, Tenta said that he's taking a year off
   and will only wrestle occasionally in Japan.  He will spend 
   most of his time with his wife Josephine and their two children,
   Jeffrey (10) and Joanna (3).  A third child is due in March.
   Tenta ended the article by saying that the quality of sumo
   wrestling isn't what it used to be and that there would be
   a lot of pressure on Akebono now that he's made that rank.
     The article was accompanied by two pictures, one of Tenta from
   the WWF as Earthquake and one of him dressed in his Sumo attire.

 - What news story far overshadows eveything else taking place in
   the world of pro-wrestling?  Yep, you've got it.  Ric Flair.
   Ric Flair is now offically leaving the WWF after losing his match
   against Curt Hennig which aired on Monday night in the US.  Although
   Flair is booked to wrestling something like ten more dates in the
   WWF - mostly jobbing for Curt Hennig; the two are scheduled to meet
   in Toronto on 01/31/93 - it is rumoured that Flair won't honour
   much of that commitment now that he's done the job.  Word is that
   the Flair-Hennig matches will become Lawler-Hennig matches.
     Ric Flair wants to take a short break before returning to WCW a
   couple of days earlier than I said last week. He's scheduled
   to debut on 02/13/93 in Greensboro, NC.  The next night he's
   working in Myrtle Beach, SC, and will supposedly face Big Van
   Vader for the WCW Title (gee, could that be a title change?).
   That's a Sunday and I believe that he'll debut as WCW champion 
   at the following week's tapings. 
     This brings us to WCW SuperBrawl III on 02/21/93 from Asheville, NC.
   The announced line-up has:
     - Sting vs. Big Van Vader in the White Castle of Fear
     - Great Muta vs. Barry Windham for the NWA Title
     - Rock'n'Roll Express vs. Wrecking Crew
     - Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas vs. Brian Pillman & Steve Austin
        for the WCW Tag Titles in a 2 out of 3 falls match
   Speculation, of course, has Barry Windham relieving Muta of the NWA Title
   to set up the feud with Ric Flair for both titles.  This would seem
   to lead to Flair unifying the belts and eventually feuding with Vader.
   We could expect that the line-up might also include:
     - Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas vs. Brian Pillman & Steve Austin
        for the WCW Tag Titles in a 2 out of 3 falls match
     - An appearance of some sort by Ric Flair
     - Dustin Rhodes vs. Paul Orndorff for the US Title
     - Hopefully, something with Chris Benoit and 2 Cold Scorpio
     - The debut of Davey Boy Smith or Sid Vicious?

 - There's talk that Jake Roberts will be returning to WCW.

 - WCW will apparently revive the TV Title with a tournament in February.

 - After his marathon performance in the Royal Rumble, Bob Backlund gets
   the honour of being programmed with Doink the Clown.

 - WWF has WrestleMania on 04/04/93 at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.
   Talk now is that Hulk Hogan is not going to appear at WrestleMania.
   The tentative line-up looks like this:
    - Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna for the WWF Title
    - Steiners vs. Money, Inc. for the WWF Tag Titles 
    - Tatanka vs. Shawn Michaels for the IC Title 
    - Curt Hennig vs. Lex Luger
    - Crush vs. Doink the Clown
    - Giant Gonzales vs. Kamala or Undertaker?

 - Finally, I'm currently sending this post as e-mail to a couple of 
   netters who don't like how long they have to wait before they see
   it as news at their site.  I figured I'd mention this to everybody
   and if anybody wants to be added to the list he can send me some
   e-mail.  I once talked with somebody on the net (sorry, I forget
   who) about the idea of incorporating this weekly post into a 
   weekly e-mail newsletter type thingie, which could also include
   house show & TV reports, video reports, trading stuff, and other
   things.  At the time, I was considering offering to e-mail my
   post to people with slow sites and it developed into this much
   larger concept.  I'm still unsure whether I'm into that larger
   concept, but here's the e-mail offer nonetheless.   
                                                           Herb...
Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling