[INFO] Ring Report Vol 3 #4 pt. 3 of 4

[RingR...@aol.com]

LUCHA 8/18/96 by DOUG CORTI
E-Mail: jadc...@artsu1.watstar.uwaterloo.ca

Last week's Lucha broadcast was a repeat of the previous week's, so there
was no report. Fresh footage this week. The highlight being action to
determine the 1996 Junior Grand Prix Champion. All the matches were one fall
encounters. This action came from CMLL.

QUARTER-FINALS

Match 1 - FELINO vs. SHOCKER
Felino has a new outfit, with blue replacing the previous orange. Looks so
appropriate for a cat. Shocker hit a moonsault of the second rope to the
floor. The victory, however, went to Felino, as he hoisted Shocker onto his
shoulders, then fell back. Bridge for the 1-2-3.

Match 2 - BESTIA SALVAGE vs. GRAN SASUKE
First time seeing Sasuke. He has a Ninja gimmick, with a costume a little
like OCTAGON. Mat wrestling resulted in many 2 counts to open the match.
Sasuke won when he held onto a Salvage body slam, and turned it into a small
package.

Match 3 - DANDY vs. MASCARA MAGICA
Quick match. Dandy went for an atomic drop, but Magica was able to hook
Dandy's waist with his legs, and then rolled up Dandy to advance.

Match 4 - EL HIJO DE SANTO vs. GUERRERO DEL MUERTE
Muerte jumped Santo to start the match, but the announcer stayed in the ring
to finish the intros. The match starts off brawling. Hijo de Santo gave
Muerte a tope that knocked him back into the second row at ringside. The
match re-entered the ring, and Muerte got nailed with a FrankendeSanto to
give the victory to El Hijo de Santo.

SEMI-FINALS

Match 5 - Felino vs. Gran Sasuke
I am starting to like Sasuke. Hope to see more of him. He does a beautiful
flip over the top rope onto Felino, both men hitting hard. Felino used the
move that he used to win his quarter-final match, this time from the second
rope, but only got a two count. End comes when Sasuke got Felino with a
German suplex.

Match 6 - El Hijo de Santo vs. Mascara Magica
Another relatively short match. Santo got the win after hitting a tope on
Magica, that knocked Magica 2 rows back into the ringside fans. (Repeat from
the quarter-finals). Magica did not return to the ring, and Santo advanced
via countout.

Finals

Match 7 - El Hijo de Santo vs. Gran Sasuke
The finals open up with some hold for hold mat wrestling. It then takes to
the air, with a good FrankenSasuke for a two count. At this point, somehow
the name of THAT HH GUY got mentioned. I am sure it was a comparison of
their technical abilities. Cough. Ack. For the third match in a row, Santo
hit a tope to the outside. Sasuke executed a moonsault off the top rope to
Santo on the floor. Finally, Santo slaps Sasuke in the camel clutch, earning
a submission victory.

Interview with El Hijo de Santo.

MATCH 8 - DAMIEN EL GUERRERO, GUERRERO MAYA & GUERRERO EL FUTURO vs.
OLYMPUS, OLYMPICO and PINK and GRAY TECNICO (didn't catch the last guy's
name) This was joined in progress for the third fall. The rudos were able
to eliminate Olympus, when Damien drove him into the knees of his partners.
Damien then gave Olympus a senton to the head. But, Pink & Gray Tecnico made
El Futuro submit to a variation of the scorpion death lock to give a victory
to the tecnicos.

Match 8 - DR. WAGNER JR., APOLLO DANTES & KAHOZ vs. LIZMARK, ATLANTIS & LA
FIERA

Well, with the previous match joined in progress, you might as well have the
ending cut off of this one. We cut to a commercial break with the rudos
beating the tar out of La Fiero, but return to the graphic announcing the
start of the second fall. Only a few minutes of the second fall is shown
before we cut away for . . .

An interview with TIGER MASK, done through his interpreter. This was in
relation to the Grand Prix championship.

Match 9 - (AAA) PARKITA & ESPECTRITO 1 & 2 vs. SUPER MUNEQUITO, MINI
FRESBEE & MASCARITA SAGRADA JR.
The first thing that strikes me is how small Sagrada Jr. was, even for a
mini. His shoulders only reached the middle rope. His workrate more than
made up for the lack of height. Parkita is good at comedy spots. Sagrada Jr.
gave Parkita a spinning senton to the outside. In the ring, Fresbee, hit a
moonsault on Espectrito 2 for the first fall. Second fall went to the rudos,
when Parkita small packaged Munequito, and Espectrito 1 made Sagrada Jr.
submit. He held him as if he was going to give him a splash mountain, but
then Parkita held onto Sagrada's legs. In the third fall, Sagrada Jr. hit a
corkscrew dive on Espectrito 1 from the top rope to the outside. He flew
from a height 3 times his own. Amazing. End comes when Munequito rolls up
Espectrito 2.

WCW Saturday Night 8/17

WHAT YOU MISSED: A look at HULK HOGAN vs. RIC FLAIR at the CLASH . . .
this show desperately needs a new opening and look . . . a look at HULK
HOGAN showing off the NWO belt at the PPV . . . ROUGH & READY out to face
EARL ROBERT EATON & SQUIRE DAVID TAYLOR: a phone call and I miss the ending
of this one . . . a look at Flair vs. Hogan again . . . DUSTY RHODES says a
new member of the NEW WORLD ORDER will appear this Monday night . . . THE
FOUR HORSEMEN vs. HIGH VOLTAGE, RENEGADE & JOE GOMEZ: Gomez vs. MONGO first.
Mongo learning simple power moves and a move or 2 off the 2nd rope. Needs to
bulk up a bit if he's going to fill the Lex Luger, Sid Vicious or even Paul
Roma role. Benoit is just nuts. I've said it for years here -- he is the
next superstar. Even in the days with Eaton you could tell. Flair with a
figure four on RAGE to win the match . . . Four Horsemen interview . . .
NASTY BOYS vs. don't know because Dusty was talking about NICK PATRICK for
most of the match. 2 minutes in we hear it's HARDWORK BOBBY WALKER & MARK
STARR. Crowd loves the Nasties and they get the win . . . a look at NITRO
highlights . . . an interview with COL. PARKER & SHERRI . . . STEINERS vs.
HARLEM HEAT: same match that these two always put on until the Nasty Boys
come, attack Rick Steiner, get rid of Scott Steiner and then get rid of one
of heat and Sherri. Sherri apparently exposes herself on the fall. Ref. did
not call it until the guys hit the ring (Dusty made a big point of it.) . .
. NWO segment from "Rome, Italy" . . . JIM POWERS vs. THE GIANT: a chokeslam
and it was over. Giant says "HOGAN, I am not going away" to the camera then
goes to chat with MEAN GENE . . .

WWF CANADIAN MANIA 8/17/96 Joel Geraghty (cger...@icis.on.ca)
WHAT YOU MISSED: They did a split-screen showing the entrance of CRUSH at
WRESTLEMANIA IX on one side and his entrance on last week's MONDAY NIGHT RAW
to show how different he looked . . . From RAW, SAVIO VEGA surrendered to
CRUSH, who applied a full nelson, while CLARENCE MASON did commentary . . .

>From RAW, KEVIN KELLEY interviewed AHMED JOHNSON in his home about the
kidney injury . . . TODD PETTENGILL says that there will be more comments
from AHMED this week on WWF SUPERSTARS, so don't miss it . . . From RAW,
SKIP was manhandled by FAAROOQ ASAAD . . . SLAM JAM with DOK HENDRIX about
next week's WWF EX-PERIENCE at Toronto's CNE. He says that the match between
PSYCHO SID and VADER will be a Lumberjack Match, and the lumberjacks will be
the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts . . . JIM ROSS delivered
THE ROSS REPORT. He explains the rules for the MANKIND/UNDERTAKER Boiler
Room Brawl are that the men will start in a boiler room and try to make
their way to the ring to gain possession of the urn, which will be in the
middle of the ring. His other topic is the GOLDUST/SABLE/MARLENA triangle,
and ROSS says that things may become clearer at SUMMERSLAM . . . Footage
from this past week's press conference at WAYNE GRETZKY’S restaurant about
the WWF EX-PERIENCE. JIM CORNETTE angered the Toronto Argonauts at the
conference so that is why they will be the lumberjacks for the VADER/SID
match on August 24 . . . Part One in a two-part series of a look at SHAWN
MICHAELS on the set of BAYWATCH . . . SLAM JAM with DOK, who adds a "special
bonus match" for next week's EX-PERIENCE - JOSE LOTHARIO will face JIM
CORNETTE in the ring . . .

>From RAW, SHAWN MICHAELS pinned THE SLAMMY AWARD WINNING OWEN HART and was
then assaulted by THE MAN THEY CALL VADER . . . TODD showed what happened
after RAW went off the air; JOSE LOTHARIO pulled SHAWN out of the ring
before VADER could do anymore damage . . . Another look at SUNNY behind a
screen trying to decide what to wear to the "Bikini Beach Blast-Off" at the
FREE FOR ALL . . . The whole interview with BRET "HIT MAN" HART by MR.
PERFECT . . . TODD says that also at the FREE FOR ALL, THE MIGHTY YOKOZUNA
will battle STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN . . . He goes on to explain how he'll
have his feet in the pool and the whole thing is going to be a big beach
party . . . !!!

ECCW AT THE VIEX by TODD HAMILTON
E-Mail: to...@nanaimo.ark.com
The ECCW (Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling), recently held four
mini-cards (I guess you could call them that) over a two day period at the
VIEX (Vancouver Island Exhibition) in Nanaimo, BC at Beban Park. With a name
like ECCW has and a lucha Libre wrestler, Singapore cane matches, a wrestler
with a nickname of the shooter, and a wrestler who's name was to be spelt
Dudly, along with much more you kinda figure it's a spin off from ECW even
though it is a pretty pathetic one but hey it is live wrestling and is the
only fed that comes to Nanaimo so you can't complain :). Anyway the cards
took place outside on the fair grounds and Bart Sawyer (USWA) wrestled for
this fed.

Anyway here are some quick results (sorry I didn't take notes other than the
winners and losers) from the cards I attended that you may like to use for
your newsletters.

I also took some pictures which I may use on a web page (if I ever get one).

Here are the results:

FRIDAY AT 1:00 - Oly "the shooter" Olsen pinned Crybaby Hueey in a diaper
match . . . El Antorcha pinned Bulldog Bob Brown Jr. (AKA Stu Kemp the
promoter and former Wrestling World columnist) . . . The Iron Maiden pinned
the Pink Power Ranger in a women’s match . . . ECCW Champion "The Olympian"
Mike Rosselli and "Gorgeous" Michelle Starr (AKA Mike Starr from the last
few Superstars tapings) battled to a double countout in a ECCW title match.

FRIDAY AT 7:00 - Crybaby Huey pinned Puff the Magic Dragon after a big
splash . . . El Antorcha and the Pink Power Ranger beat Bulldog Bob Brown
Jr. and the Iron Maiden by pinfall in a mixed tag match in which the women
could wrestle the men . . . Michelle Starr pinned Mike Rosselli to win the
ECCW title after he hit Rosselli with a foreign object.

SATURDAY AT 1:00 - Unfortunately I couldn't make it to this card : ( (if
that is unfortunate) however I do know that El Antorcha pinned Bulldog Bob
Brown Jr. in one of the matches.

SATURDAY AT 7:00 - Puff the Magic Dragon and the Pink Power Ranger beat
Crybaby Huey and the Iron Maiden after Huey accidentally splashed Maiden and
the Power Ranger and Puff jumped on top for the pin. When could also wrestle
women in this match . . . Bulldog Bob Brown won a best 2-of-3 falls match 2
falls to 1. Antorcha won the first fall in about 10 seconds after a legdrop,
Brown the second after a missed aerial move by Antorcha and Brown the third
after putting his feet on the ropes during the pin . . . Mike Rosselli
pinned Michelle Starr to win the ECCW title in a Street Fight. Pinfalls
counted anywhere although the action never left the ring and objects were
placed in each of the four corners of the ring before the match. These
included a plastic milk carton, a wooden carton, a baseball bat, and a steel
chair. Rosselli won the match after ref. Gary Allen took a bump and Brown
came down to the ring with a handful of salt (it was actually more like baby
powder). While Starr was holding Rosselli Brown attempted to throw the salt
in Rosselli's eyes however of course Brown missed, hit Starr, and Rosselli
pinned him to win the title.

Well those are the results. Please edit whatever and use it in your
newsletter if you wish. There may be another ECCW card here in September and
I'll be going to the Victoria, BC WWF house show (we got third row tickets)
so I'll send you all the results of that. Since there also has been a Red
Power Ranger in a fed that came here run partially by the same people I am
guessing a match on one of the next cards will be Puff and the Pink Power
Ranger vs. Barney and Sailor Moon :).

Well you all seem to have a fairly good knowledge of the sport and since the
only TV broadcast’s I get are from the WWF I was wondering if you could help
me with identifying the managers for these wrestlers and teams. I have a
good idea who some of the managers are and that some don't have a manager
but I just wanted to check it over with you. If you know of any or all of
the managers please let me know (this doesn't need to go in your
newsletter). Thanks in advance!

Sting, Eddie Guerrero, Shane Douglas, Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Chris Benoit,
Lex Luger, Sabu, Dean Malenko, Road Warriors, and Steiner Brothers.

Hope to hear back from you soon, bye for now!!

ON THE ROPES by JOE CROWE
E-Mail: j.cr...@genie.com

Mix and match this week, a plethora of comments, if you will. Since I
haven't been around in awhile, I've got various and sundry pithy items to
mention. Now that you've bought the setup, let's just get to it, shall we?
I'm watching the latest Glacier promo right now. Maybe it's really Eric
Bischoff. That'd be the only way to make this thing interesting. MORTAL
KOMBAT was big LAST year.
I've really got a kick out of wrestling interviews lately, primarily in
WCW. The Giant has really gotten a mouth on him. He was just a big doofus
until a few months ago, right around the time the Outsiders showed up. I
think Kevin Nash ("I'm the s---, I tell ya") gave him some pointers. Arn
Anderson has always been a good talker, and Lord Regal has blossomed lately.
Sting's mike work has improved markedly since Hogan's turn, but I especially
enjoyed last week's Nitro. "I have lived the LIFE in WCW!" Translated, that
means "I have JOBBED for EVERYBODY!"
Mongo McMichael is much more enjoyable than I thought. He's not a very
good wrestler. Surprise! But he doesn't have to be. He looks good standing
there with his dark glasses, and he blows up, spitting and fuming in
interviews.
Hog Wild was the first WCW PPV this YEAR which didn't contain Macho Man
Randy Savage lying in a pool of his own blood. He's just an object of pity
now. It's useless to put him in match after match against Blue Bloods and
Dungeon of Doomers when he's just going to get ripped again when he makes it
to a big match with his ex-wife's blithering idiot. I think it'd be sweet
for him to beat Hogan.
Speaking of Hogan, how do you put over a guy as a mega-heel when his
first two major opponents are the other top heels in the fed? At no point in
either of the two matches did fans rally to the side of Flair or the Giant.
The only neat thing was the Giant hulking up. I thought we'd seen the end of
the Hulk-out, but there it was again at the Clash. Where does he supposedly
get it from now?
Criticism aside, the NWO angle remains the best and continually
surprising angle in wrestling today. Hall and Nash came over partly because
they couldn't or didn't want to wrestle full time anymore. Now they don't
have to blow hours busting up WCW’S jobbers. They can wrestle good matches
at PPVS. and tape positively brilliant interview segments. I was very
impressed with Nash's SPARTACUS reference via the quote, "If I can't have
your love, I'll take your hate!" Very appropriate when you think about it.
Remember a column I wrote awhile back, suggesting new hairstyles and
makeovers for WCW? And then it happened. Not that WCW is reading my column,
but there's no evidence that they're not, either. I'll be happy to take
credit for it. :) Swapping up their weekend shows was a good idea, but let's
try to vary up the announcing jobs now. Give Mike Tenay a FULL TIME JOB. Add
a woman, like, for instance, Woman. Better yet, give some of the wrestlers
an hour on NITRO or SATURDAY NIGHT to shoot their mouths off. Letting the
wrestlers do color is the only thing that the WWF has done well recently.
Speaking of the WWF, I don't know how many people noticed, but the
biggest waffle I have seen in wrestling in awhile was perpetrated just this
week. On Monday Night, for some reason, Shawn Michaels wrestled the new
superjobber Yokozuna. Except Yoko had been jobbing for heels, as recently as
the night before. Cornette's out there, bragging about getting Yoko back in
his stable, but of course Shawn beats him good. The end. Yoko's a bad guy
again, but destined now to lose to the good guys all the time.
But then on WWF MANIA, the Unshushable Todd shows us after-match
footage of Yoko giving a high five and a manly hug to Shawn. He's still a
good guy. What?! They couldn't show 4 extra seconds of this on RAW? No,
they just DIDN'T.
Don't get me started about "Farooq Asaad." Maybe Jerry Lawler's "Ron
Simmons" mention when he first appeared was Jerry's unsubtle hint to Vince
that he shouldn't change his name to a jingoist tongue twister. Meanwhile,
Sunny's other preoccupation, the Smoking Gunns, defeat ALL the other WWF tag
teams at SS. What this means is that they have no more competition. Is he
even looking for more teams? He needs to. He could always combine two of his
freshly-minted cartoon jobbers. While Eric sits on no fewer than TEN tag
teams, and he concentrates on giving title angles only to teams who've
already held the belts a zillion times.
Next time, less rambling and more substance. Or maybe not.

THE SUPER BOMB by Tom Robson (E-mail: TRobs...@aol.com)

All right, Summerslam has come and gone. Up next is In Your House 10: Mind
Games. I guess that now would be a good a time as any to give you my take on
the upcoming event. I have more interest in this than most, because I will
be attending it live in Philadelphia (anyone else that is, e-mail me and
maybe we can meet for a few minutes at the event) As you all would like to
forget, the last time the WWF brought a pay-per-view to Philadelphia, it had
the potential to be one of the best King of the Rings ever. A pathetic tag
team main event, but then there was Bret Hart against Jerry Lawler, and an 8
man field that included Shawn Michaels, Kama, Yokozuna, The Undertaker and
Razor Ramon. We all know what happened, so I won't go into any more detail
than to say that the card SUCKED!!!

Then I heard that the main event for IYH would be Shawn Michaels and Jose
Lothario against Vader and Jim Cornette (this of course after I had bought
tickets). Well, for once, thank God that Michaels has a huge ego, since he
reportedly refused to work a main event match with Cornette. Now, we have
Michaels battling Mankind in the main event. No mystery about this match.
Michaels will win after Undertaker gets involved, setting up the final
UT/Mankind match in October. However, I expect that this match could be
really good. Now I HATE Shawn Michaels, but I have to say that he is
possibly one of the most talented WWF Champions in quite a while. Hopefully,
Vinnie Mac will let Cactus Jack come out of Mankind and turn this into an
ECW-style brawl, with Michaels displaying his high-flying ability in several
places. Hopefully.

Then there's The Undertaker battling GoldDust, AGAIN. No wait, this is a
"Final Curtain" match. It can only end via pinfall. Who cares? Why must we
be forced to endure GoldDust. Like I've said before, people are just getting
bored with the gimmick now. ECW chant possibility #1.

How about Jim Cornette vs. Jose Lothario. A 400 pound manager against a 62
year-old trainer. ECW chant possibility #2.

The Smoking Gunns against Owen Hart and The British Bulldog. YES!!!
Hopefully this is where Owen and Davey Boy will get the tag belts, and this
should be a good match, too. Gunns are underrated, although they ain't The
Midnight Express. Hart and Bulldog have good skills, and will make good
champions. Also, if they get the belts, it will make for an interesting
situation with Sunny, as she always manages the tag champions. Could we see
Owen and Bulldog dump Cornette? It's a possibility . . .

Faarooq Asaad will battle Marc Mero, in what hopefully WON'T be the IC title
tournament finals. Actually, chances are it will be a semi-final match. Bad
match-up.

Dark matches will allow us to be the first ones to see Barry Windham's
return, I believe. Can't wait to see what kind of shape he's in.

All in all, it could be really good, if everything goes perfectly. It could
also be worse than KOTR. It all will depend on whether Cornette has been
fired as booker by then. (Please be reading this WWF!!!)