The Ringside Insider 75 - Part Two
Ross Marshall
ULTIMATE JEOPARDY '96 by Frank Romeo
Mail to: zei...@enigma.rider.edu
In the opening match of Ultimate Jeopardy '96, we saw Louie Spicolli
defeat Doug Furnas in singles action. This was a great match to start
the night off with. A lot of great action and Louie wins it with the
fireman's breaker!
In the next match we saw Mikey Whipwreck defeat J.T. Smith, who was
accompanied by Little Guido, Devon Storm, Bad Crew, and Sal Bellomo,
using the Franken-Mikey from the top rope. This match was pretty slow,
with the exception of action out of the ring. During the match, all of
J.T.'s entourage would pound on Mikey in front of the ref, until Mikey
would clear house.
The Eliminator's went on to defeat the Samoan Gangsta Party in a pretty
quick and boring match. The Samoans double teamed the Elims before being
on the receiving end of a double total elimination!
Next match was the "Big Surprise" Match. "The Public Enemy," consisting
of the ever hilarious "Flyboy" Stevie Richards and Meanie Grunge can to
the ring to the real Public Enemy's "Here Comes the Hotstepper" and joked
for a few minutes. Then Richards took his shirt off, let down his hair
and announced that he and the Meanie would fight the Gangstas! Well,
after the Gangstas came in and they all brawled for a few minutes, the
Eliminators did a run in and totally eliminated the Gangstas as Richards
and the Meanie went back to the locker room.
After the "match", Paul E. came out with some bad news. He said that he
had two bits of info for us. First he said that the surprise tag team
was supposed to be the Rock n' Roll Express whom the Gangstas had feuded
with in SMW, but they no showed, and that Bischoff might have bought them
off. The next bit of bad news was really bad. He started by saying that
contrary to the rumors people have been hearing, Raven will be staying in
the ECW, and has signed a match for the ECW PPV next year. He then said
that Raven, Thursday night, requested a 2 week leave of absence for
personal reasons. Paul E. said that we will hear many rumors of what is
going on here, but none will be true and to ignore them. He then stated
that his title would be on the line in the main event though. To finish
he stated that Devon Storm was supposed to face Terry Gordy next, but he
hopes that we would like Terry's new opponent.
In the next match we saw Bam Bam Bigelow defeat Terry "Bamm Bamm" Gordy
after the Eliminators interferred and Totally Eliminated Gordy. This
match was soooo boring. Probably the most boring match I have ever
seen. Everyone around me was joking how this is Gordy's warm up match
for the WWF.
In the TV title match, Shane Douglas and Pitt Bull #2 wrestled to a no
contest when "all hell broke loose." This was a fairly decent match,
and it all blew up in the end. When the ref was knocked out of the
ring, Francine got involved. She climbed in the ring and attacked Pitt
Bull #2, who was choking Shane with his chain. Then Pitt Bull #2 put
Francine over his shoulder and gave her a running powerslam! When he
turned around the ref got back in the ring to check on Francine. Shane
threw powder in the Pitt Bull's eyes, and Pitt Bull #1 climbed into the
ring. Shane grabbed him by the cage which is around his head to hold his
neck in place and proceeded to violently shake it. The locker room
cleared and security grabbed Douglas to get him away. Fans were even
trying to attack Shane as he was being carried away. An ambulence showed
up and took Pitt Bull #1 away.
In a special submission match, Taz beat Johnny Smith via the Taz-mission.
This was another great match between these two. Johnny never submitted
to the Taz-mission, but lost when the ref dropped his hand 3 times. Taz
then went on to tell every one how Sabu was wrestling in Japan that
night, and how he loved the Japanese fans for then the people in ECW Arena.
In a special match, The Gangstas successfully defended their belts
against the Eliminators in a decent match, but not as good of a match as
they have had in the past. The highlight was after the match, The Elims
eliminated Mustafa and then New Jack. Kronus put a table on the top rope
and performed a flying press onto New Jack. They then put a ladder on
top of the table and Saturn dropped 2 elbows from the top of the ladder
onto New Jack.
In a grudge match, D-Von Dudley beat Buh Buh Ray
Dudley in a violent match. Those two take some of the hardest chairshots
in wrestling today. At one point, Buh Buh beat D-Von in the head with
a chair till it was beyond smashing anymore. After the match was over,
Axl, Spike, and Big Dick all battled in the ring. After flooring Axl
in the MIDDLE of the ring, Big Dick climbed to the top rope and
performed one of the most beautiful moonsaults I have ever seen!
In the Main Event, we saw Tommy Dreamer and the Sandman defeat the team
of "Prime Time" Brian Lee and Stevie Richards, when Sandman pinned
Richards to win the world title for the third time. This match was all
over the place, but the highlight was Brian Lee chokeslamming Tommy
Dreamer from the 30+ foot balcony through 3 tables! I can't believe that
Dreamer keeps doing these CRAZY stunts! He is going to get himself
killed one of these days. Amist all of the confusion of Dreamer being
strechered out of the consession stand area, the Sandman DDT's Richards
on a chair to win the title. In the Sandman's post match celebration, a
fan jumped in the ring and grabbed the Sandman. The Sandman in return
started to beat the fan with the belt.
The show was overall not one of the best shows, but it had it's strong
points. Here is a rundown of some future ECW shows.
10/11 in Revere, MA at Wonderland Greyhound Park:
Gangstas vs. Samoans
10/12 in Burlington, MA at Strike One Sports & Amusements:
Sabu vs. Saturn
2 Cold vs. Doug Furnas
10/18 in Plymouth Meeting, PA at the Lu Lu Temple:
Raven vs. Sandman - in a cage (cancelled????)
Dreamer vs. Lee - in a cage
Sabu vs. 2 Cold
Shane vs. Mikey
Eliminators vs. Dudleys
New Jack vs. Rotten
10/19 in Bensalem, PA at Boomerangs off State Rd.:
Raven vs. Sandman
Shane vs. Dreamer
Pit Bull #2 vs. Lee
10/25 in Jim Thorpe, PA at the Flagstaff:
Shane, Francine, Dreamer, Taz, the Dudleys and more!
10/26 in Philly at the ECW Arena:
The Eliminator's vs. Terry "Bamm Bamm" Gordy and "Dr.Death" Steve Williams
Sabu and Rob Van Dam vs. Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat.
News from the WCW Monday Nitro (30th September 1996) Show
The following information was submitted by a reader of The Ringside
Insider who was backstage at last week's WCW Monday Nitro show and
has the following snippets to report:
- The injury to The Public Enemy was legitimate and had the backstage
medical staff in a frenzy after the match.
- After Monday Nitro had officially gone off the air, Eric Bischoff
was seen and heard berating Glacier, who incidently is a very nice
person. Apparantly, Bischoff was not very impressed with Glacier's
performance. Glacier's entrance is something to be seen in person, and
is very impressive.
- Gene Okerlund will not be returning to WCW in the forseeable future.
- Tony Schiavane was one of the most unfriendliest persons you are
likely to meet. And the wrestlers didn't seem to think that much
about him either.
- Diamond Dallas Paige is also a very nice person and received a huge
pop from the crowd.
The Weekly Wrestling Rant by "The Critic"
Mail to: cul...@charm.net
THE DEATH OF KEYFABE?
In both the WWF and the WCW, the new trend is toward more openess
and (as it serves a federation) the truth. The, pardon the phrase,
'New World Order' of wrestling tends towards the ECW-shoot style
interviews, more violence, hardcore, athletic wrestling. It really
started when Eric Bischoff began giving the results of Raw on Nitro,
and escalated with the Billionaire Ted skits. The skits and Eric s
continued verbal assault on the WWF started to cross the line of
reality, which Vince McMahon had always avoided, except in rare studio
interviews. Once the NWO started in WCW, the bell began to toll for
the WWF s pointed avoidance of admitting the existence of the WCW.
Vince publicly stated that Diesel and Razor were not working for the WWF.
Once the NWO gained steam, and began to trounce the WWF in the ratings
every week, Vince knew that he had to do something drastic to reverse
his fortunes. He came up with a little angle with the ECW that has
given the fans a shot in the arm in the hopes of seeing true "hardcore"
wrestling in the WWF. Finally, he unveiled the Jim Ross "Insider" angle
that has all of the appearance of totally throwing out all of the
rule that the WWF has about admitting who is in charge at the WWF, and
what happens behind the scenes.
Not only has Jim Ross claimed to be reponsible for Diesel and Razor
leaving the WWF, he claims responsiblity for Marc Mero, Pillman, etc,
coming in to the WWF. He claims this weekend that his good friend
J.J. Dillon left him in charge before he left the WWF. He openly
taunted Vince McMahon, the owner of the WWF. He is claiming that he
will tell the truth in all the things that happen in the WWF.
The WCW hasn t been quiet either when it comes to keyfabe. Whether
by design or accident, the Scott Hall question to the Giant "So,
are you really Andre s Son?" reportedly really ticked off Bishoff
because it made fun of his angle. The total control that the NWO
seemingly has over their segments treads that fine line by the off
the cuff statements of the various members of the NWO. "Jim Powers, he
looks juiced up today."
"Debra McMichael, she wants me."
But the apparent final nail in the coffin is WWF LiveWire. This show,
that started out kind of weak, is getting exponentially better each
week. They have broken character, with Todd Pettingill saying, "We
can talk about Hulk Hogan if you want." They have admitted that Vince
is in charge of the WWF.
They have acknowleged Michael P.S. Hayes. They have even talked about
the NWO, WCW, and Ted Turner. Finally, in a move that everyone on
the Internet knew, they had Paul E. call in and taunt McMahon by
claiming that ECW was the real hardcore, and that McMahon kept stealing
his angles and wrestlers.
Folks. It doesn t get any better than this. You wanted the cartoonish
wrestling gone and realism in? You got it!
Of course that s just my opinion. I could be wrong.
The Critic
cul...@charm.net
http://www.charm.net/~cullen/wrestle.htm
CONTINUED in Part Three of The Ringside Insider