From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze)
Subject: Wrestling TidBits   -   07/30
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 12:59:40 GMT

 - Kerry von Erich has been fired from the WWF after his latest drug
   test failure.

 - The WWF has it's SummerSlam PPV scheduled for August 31st (to be
   taped at Wembley Stadium in London, England, on August 29th).
   The following line-up has been announced in North America:
     - 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
   The following matches have been announced, I believe, on English
   television:
     - Money Inc. vs. Legion of Doom 
     - Papa Shango vs. Kerry von Erich
     - 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
   With Kerry von Erich gone, some other face will be selected to job
   for Papa Shango.  It has been reported here that LOD and the Beverly
   Brothers will switch spots in the line-up, which seems strange,
   since we'd have another heel vs. heel match and another face vs.
   face match. 

 - Terry Taylor will disappear from TV for a while and debut with a 
   new gimmick after August, although he will work the NWA Singles
   tourney in Japan in August.

 - The NWA Singles Title tournament takes place in August in Japan.
   The tournament structure is as follows:
      
   Scott Norton    --\                                /-- Jim Neidhart         
                      |--\                        /--|                         
   Bam Bam Bigelow --/    |                      |    \-- Kensuke Sasaki       
                          |--\                /--|                             
   Tony Halme      --\    |   |              |   |    /-- Terry Taylor         
                      |--/    |              |    \--|                          
   Masa Chono      --/        |              |        \-- Hiro Hase            
                              |--- Finals ---|                                 
   Barry Windham   --\        |      |       |        /-- Barbarian            
                      |--\    |      |       |    /--|                         
   Keiji Muto      --/    |   |      |       |   |    \-- Shinya Hashimoto     
                          |--/       |        \--|                             
   Steve Austin    --\    |          |           |    /-- Rick Rude            
                      |--/       NWA Singles      \--|                         
   Arn Anderson    --/              Title             \-- Super Strong Machine 

   The first round matches on the left take place on August 6th and the first
   round matches on the right take place on Ausgust 7th.  The quarter-finals
   take place on August 10th, the semi-finals are on August 11th and the
   finals are on August 12th.  I would guess that Muto will win the tourney.
   Matches or highlights from the tournament will air on WTBS in some form.

 - Jim Neidhart will be coming into WCW shortly.  Talk continues of Jake
   Roberts coming into WCW. 

 - Bill Watts is returning to nightly payoffs for much of the WCW talent 
   that was under contract, except the staple wrestlers.  WCW used to give
   contracts to all their wrestlers, which guaranteed them a salary.  This
   was good and bad: wrestlers who got injured while working still got
   their salary, wrestlers took home the same pay from week to week
   whether they worked twice or 6 times.  Some wrestlers have been 
   brought in with $300 per appearance "salaries".  We can expect that
   some wrestlers who are under contract may leave the company when
   their contract expires and they are asked to take the $300-a-night
   deal.

 - I got to watch the Bash PPV on tape on the weekend and it made clear 
   that Bill Watts plans to try to build the company around Ron Simmons.  
   Van Vader is scheduled to return to New Japan Pro-Wrestling for the
   October tour, so we may even expect him to drop the title to Simmons
   prior to the Halloween Havoc PPV (scheduled for October 25th), maybe
   at the Clash of Champions scheduled on September 2nd, maybe sooner.
   With everybody challenging Vader for a title shot, they sure are
   trying to get the WCW Title over as something important for once.

 - El Gigante should start in the WWF in the new year.  

 - The WBF will continue to exist until the end of this year, only to market 
   ICOPRO and keep Lex Luger in the spotlight.  Many of the bodybuilders are
   upset with Vince and some (Mike Quinn and Mike Christian) have quit the
   group.  Joe Weider has announced that if a WBF bodybuilder pays a 
   substantial fine, he can return to the IFBB.

 - I watched some half-year old Japanese wrestling on the weekend.  One
   of the matches had Koji Kanemoto debuting as the third Tiger Mask
   (the others of course being Satoru Sayama and Mitsuhara Misawa).
   He did many of Sayama's old spots, with only minor flubs.  Word 
   has it that he's going to work in the UWA for a while to pick up 
   some Lucha training.
                                                                   Herb...